The Law of Three
by BaBeSgIrL
Summary: Sequel to The Son of Three: Neo's at it again, but this time he has to save the Nine Realms! But what will the Asgardians think of him? How will he stop a War between two societies that just keep fighting? Everything is starting to feel less like a coincidence. Rated M for violence and will contain Slash. (2nd story in the New God Chronicles.)
1. Prologue

_Author Note: This is still a ruff Prologue and I may make some alterations to it. This is __labeled__as and Avengers story but it will include other Marvel movies including the Avengers. It took me awhile but feel free to point out any mistakes so I can keep working on them. Like I said this is still ruff but my Muse is laying down on the job, but if she doesn't get up and start helping me with this story I'm going to kick her out of my head and hire a new one (who also enjoys being fueled by major amounts of caffeine while sleep deprived. I know, I know, it's bad for my brain but at least I don't __threaten__to poke the Voices with a Q-tip...again :-)). Please enjoy!_

_This is rated M for violence but right now it's pretty tame, so just wait ;-)_

"Blah." = normal speech

'Blah.' = thoughts

"_Blah_." = beast speech

"_Blah._" = Death's mental voice

***This*** = scene change

**The Law of Three**

**Prologue**

It has been three days since Neo returned from Olympus and everything was more or less the same as before he had left. Most of the campers still thought that his Norse heritage meant he didn't belong there. Then there were others who thought that the Asgardians were lesser gods than those from Olympus so they took the chance to test his strength whenever they could. It wasn't a bad thing though, in the end Neo got the exercise and training he needed but that didn't change the fact that every one of the campers who had been his training and sparing partners were still "unable" (more like scared) to continue lessons. One good thing that had stayed the same was Constance, she was happy to see him because he was the only one she wanted riding her. The Pegasus had become loyal to him and only him.

Even his living arrangement was almost the same as before. Neo hadn't moved back into Cabin Eleven with all of the other demigod children acting strange around him still. It seemed Neo was destined to be separate from this group of people he was a part of just like he was in the Wizarding World but this time he wouldn't even have "house mates". That didn't really bother him though because he much preferred the company of Loki, Jormungandr and Fenrir over the demigods of Camp Half-Blood, even with the odd behavior of the two Sons of Loki.

He sighed as he let his thoughts stew while he ate his breakfast. The other three in the room glanced at his melancholy form before returning to their own meals knowing they should just let him think. At least something's were different, even though any changes could be counted on one hand. One change involved the three new guests to his tent, whom had fallen into a routine around him.

Loki would stay in the tent for a few hours after breakfast and enjoy his time as he studied and learned new types of magic from the books Neo would loan him from his trunk. In the afternoons he would spend time training Neo in Æsir magic and anything he had learned from what he read beforehand. Neo knew Loki would usually leave before noon and not return until those lessons. He decided that Loki must be keeping an eye on Asgard because sometimes he would return with something that was alien to Earth, or with a very sour attitude which was usually accompanied by a lack of a small trinket. But as Loki never cared to share his activities with Neo, the young god figured that it was better to not ask about them.

Jormungandr and Fenrir both chose to spend time running around in the woods. Fenrir had commented once that he found it exciting to kill the monsters that lurked around the camp, and Jormungandr explained that because the woods where thick that many of the Greek monster took up refuge in the trees and away from mortals. But, just like Loki, Fenrir and Jormungandr took the chance to continue Neo's training.

The wolf god took his cousin for runs after his training with Loki where they ran the perimeter of Camp Half-Blood. Fenrir loved being able to change into his wolf form when they ran. The first time they ran together was a surprise for both of them. It was the same pace they had left off on before their trip to the Lotus Casino, but Fenrir soon found out it was too easy of a pace. The new god found himself having to exert himself less than before, so Neo ran faster and faster until he disappeared in a flash. As the Son of Hermes Neo was able to travel as fast as his Dad, and when he tried to stop in shock he tripped and tumbled across the ground for a long time before he came to a stop as he collided with the base of a tree. He had only received a few scraps but his clothes had been torn and were no longer wearable. Luckily the jacket he always wore was fine. The tree wasn't well either, and had a dent in its trunk. After that they worked on controlling his speed, agility, reflexes and running skills that would improve his foot work and help him dodge or change course without losing speed. Fenrir was still able to keep up with Neo but he didn't know how long that would last because the wolf was sure that his cousin kept getting faster and faster.

Jormungandr kept teaching him hand-to-hand and they had just finished the basic striking and grappling/wrestling techniques where he learned weak points. He was also making Neo practice meditation along with gymnastic moves and stretches, as a cool down after his runs to help him focused and balance his energies while keeping him limber. For the next few weeks Neo would learn more formal techniques like western Boxing, Taekwondo, Karate, Muay Tai, Judo, Sumo, Aikido, Brazilian Jiujitsu and even Tai Chi plus anything else that Jormungandr felt Neo could learn and master. And thanks to Neo's physique he had the potential for a lot of things; because he was both strong thanks to Thor's genetics increasing his muscle strength without giving him unnecessary bulk, and agile due to his inheritance from Hermes. The older and larger god had showed him a few Muay Tai moves that he practiced on trees. When Jormungandr broke a pine tree in half Neo was impressed. The Midgard Serpent was even more impressed with Neo when they started training again, because since his ascension into godhood Neo had become even stronger and more skilled at picking things up quickly. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before Neo had developed his own style of fighting, which would be the next step once he mastered what Jormungandr had to teach him.

Besides the addition of the three new gods and his extra training only three things had significantly changed at camp; (1) Luke was spending even more time with him than before meaning they worked on weapons training and Luke gave him a crash course in being a normal teenager by doing almost everything Neo had never done before such as skateboarding, water skiing, going into the city to play at the arcade, and anything else they could think of while they were out; (2) once Hephaestus had sent Clarisse's spear and Neo placed a very strong unbreakable charm on it, he gave it to Clarisse who showed her gratitude by rendering one of her brothers unconscious when he made the mistake of talking badly about Neo where Clarisse could hear, but when Neo found out about it Clarisse was very insistent that it didn't make them friends because she was just "teaching him some respect", and (3) Percy wasn't as distant as before and they had quickly gone from allies to friends thanks to Neo's generally friendly attitude toward people and his ability to accept anyone he met because no matter what, Grover would always be Percy's best friend.

Percy was happy that he had another friend. He liked talking to Neo and when the other would tell him about the Wizarding World Percy would feel like he was listening to some story plot for a fantasy novel, even though he had seen the gods of Olympus who weren't supposed to exist either. It shocked Percy that people beside his Mom could be as nice and understanding as Neo, but that wasn't all because Neo was strong, smart, loyal, always fought fair, and even though he could stop a boulder like it was nothing Neo was always careful when they were sparing.

Their sparing matches were something else that Percy liked. Neo was a really good instructor which was probably because it was just him and Percy working together, but Percy always felt like he had gotten more out of the lessons with Neo than anyone else. He could see the difference between Neo and Annabeth the most when he compared how they acted while sparing. Neo was more concerned about Percy and if he understood the lesson. In the end Annabeth may have been teaching him how to fight, but Percy was sure she was more concerned about showing off what she knew and proving that she was more experienced than him.

Even thought Luke was finally out of Cronus' control, Clarisse was being civil for once, and Percy was quickly becoming his friend, things hadn't really changed. If the last three days had taught Neo anything it was that nothing was going to change. So there he was eating breakfast in a tent next to a Camp that wasn't as homey as it was before and wondering what he was still doing there.

Chiron was still teaching him but the lessons were later that morning and gave him three hours that he would have to wait. It wasn't actually that long of a wait and he could usually find something to do, but Neo was starting to get that feeling again. The one that makes him antsy, and he usually gets it just before some life threatening adventure. It's like an early warning signal and it always goes away as soon as the danger presents itself.

Today that feeling was pulling him toward something he couldn't describe. He pushed it to the back of his mind just like he usually did, but something happened this time that had never happened before. Neo had just finished breakfast and was stepping out of the tent when he felt a sudden strengthening of the connection between him and Death that caused him to almost trip before he heard Death speak to him.

"_Neo! I need your help, come quickly!_" Death was almost screaming in his head but she was graciously suppressing her message so that it didn't hurt him.

'What are you talking about? Where…,' but he hadn't even finished the thought before he felt a shift under his feet and he was suddenly standing in the middle of the desert.

"Bollocks," he whispered as he looked around at what was happening. A small battle was being waged between what Neo understood as a possible terrorist cell (because he was pretty sure that normal people didn't camp out in remote locations with that much fire power sitting all over the place) and a big robot.

After quickly observing the fight he realized that his sudden presence had gone unnoticed, which was definitely a good thing with all of the bullets flying around because that was dangerous enough without people actually pointing the weapon at him on purpose. Neo quickly ducked behind a crate and finally his gaze landed on Death who appeared next to his crouched form.

"Get down," he said and pulled her arm making her kneel to keep from falling. "What's going on?"

"Don't worry, Master. I made sure that we can't get hit. When I pulled you here I activated the Death Ring with the intention of being incorporeal, didn't I tell you it could do that?" she asked sheepishly.

Neo stared at her with his mouth open for a moment before he answered, "No I'm pretty sure you forgot to mention that part."

"Oops, the ring doesn't just turn you invisible, like the cloak did; it can put you between the Realms of the living and dead where you won't be affected by anything. Mortals call it Limbo, and you could even walk through walls, it's like we're ghosts. I do it all the time," she smiled and stood up before she stepped into the path of one of the gunmen and he passed right through her. "Anyway, I'm here to claim the souls of these terrible men and I'll be putting them to good use when I get back to my Realm. But I need your help to keep that man alive," she told him then pointed at what he had thought was a metal robot earlier which was using a flame thrower to set everything on fire.

"Are you talking about that hunt of junk," his tone clearly showing his confusion.

"It's not junk, it's a work of genius or a genius if you wanted to get technical. There's a man in that suit of armor and he built it out of spare missile parts while he was being held captive and tortured by these men," she waved around at the terrorists, "who were supposed to kill him but instead they kept him alive and were trying to force him into building a very powerful missile for them. He is currently succeeding in his escape and I think he is doing a very good job given the circumstances."

"Alright I get your point, but uh…what am I doing here? You kinda forgot to mention that," he noted with a sarcastic smirk.

"Oh! Well like I said, I'm here for those souls that will be passing on, but a last minute change in schedule has left quite a problem. You see he should have escaped by now but he stopped when his fellow prisoner was shot and he will still be able to escape but the biggest problem is what will happen after. The same energy powering the suit is what's keeping him alive so when that energy is gone he will die. But he must live," she reached out and took his hand. "I'm asking you, please keep him alive."

Neo really didn't have to think about it. He knew if Death said that this guy was supposed to live then it was important and Neo would do everything possible to make sure whoever it was stayed alive. But there was one question he needed answered first. "I'll do it, but who is this guy anyway?"

"His name is Anthony Stark," she stopped when a roaring noise started to come from the direction of the suit of armor. A cloud of hot dirt was gathering around the feet of the giant metal suit as it began to lift into the air, "and he's leaving, hurry."

Neo nodded and took off into the air but didn't get far before Death sent a message through the connection again, "_One more thing. These men still have the possibility of living, but they _should_ die,_" Death was quiet after that and she gazed meaningfully into Neo's eyes communicating without words what she meant.

Neo flinched back when he understood. Was she really asking him to give the order to kill everyone here? Neo suddenly felt cold, he was no stranger to people dying or even taking a life, but to order Death was a big step. Neo understood that he would eventually have to make this decision, when Death had first hinted at his responsibilities as Master of Death and how anything he decided to command Death to do she would have to, but he didn't know what to do now.

He thought over his answer carefully before saying, "I'm not you, and I don't know what's best. I can't see into the future or measure the value of a soul, all I can say is…I-I give you permission to do what you think is right."

He could see the smile on Death's face as she told him, "_Well said, now go._"

Neo silently turned and followed the smoke trail left by the armor's rockets, and even though his mind was a little numb he could feel a spark of warm pride blossom in his chest but he soon figured out that it was coming from the other side of his connection with Death.

He silently followed Anthony for awhile until the man and suit started to fall to the ground. Neo acted quickly, while deactivating the ring he flew toward the suit grabbing it before it picked-up too much speed. Holding the hulking armor as he let his power over the wind lower them slowly to the ground, Neo thought it was odd that the armor didn't weigh that much. With its size though the armor should be heavy, so Neo guessed it must be him. Had he really gotten so strong? With his feet touching the ground Neo gently lowered his cargo onto the sand.

Death had said that some energy was powering the suit but he couldn't sense any electricity coming from it. There wasn't any noise coming from the man inside the suit so he must have been unconscious or dead. That thought set Neo into action.

He searched for some way to get the man out but he could see that the suit was bolted together. In desperation he grabbed the metal helmet with his hands and tore it off. Neo checked for a pulse and placed his hand over Anthony's face to see if he could feel air. Nothing. Neo grabbed the neck and shoulder and ripped off the chest plate. That was when he saw something that would have disturbed his dreams if he still dreamed like a mortal. In the middle of the other mans chest was a small round machine. It must have been the power source because Neo could feel a faint spark coming from the disc, but that was slowly dwindling as time passed.

He didn't want to apply pressure to the man's chest incase he accidently broke the devise or damaged the other's ribs, so traditional CPR was out but Neo remembered that you could use electricity to restart a heart. So he slowly channeled magic and felt for his connection with lightning then summoned a small lightning bolt that hit the devise. The still body suddenly jerked and the devise gave a small glow. 'Just a little more,' Neo thought as he sent another jolt into the device. This time it was a little brighter. Neo changed tactics and used his power to send a rhythmic pulse of power into the machine and as it slowly started to get brighter the jolt was stimulating the heart. The device powered up and the man started to breathe again. Neo heaved a sigh of relief and his shoulders sagged as he relaxed.

"Well don't you look worse for wear," Neo said as he sat back and looked at the man. Anthony's lips where chapped and his face was covered in dirt, bruises in different stages of healing, and abrasions. Neo knew what had happened because he could read the patterns of the bruises, they were almost circular and concentrated on the check and jaw area. The man in front of him was dehydrated, probably malnourished and had been used as a punching bag but he was still alive and he had escaped on his own. Anthony Stark was not a push over that's for sure. Neo smiled grimly, he was quickly being reminded of the Wizarding War, and he was drawing too many similarities between himself and this man.

"Well you owe me one Anthony," Neo said and viewed the surroundings, "but you're not out of the woods yet. We need to find help."

With the older man still unconscious Neo started to strip the armor off. When he was done Neo packed it up into his locket, and praised his paranoid tendency of keeping most of his things with him wherever he went because the only thing he didn't have right now was his tent. Armor packed he hefted his unconscious traveling companion onto his back and with his instinctual sense of direction he got from Hermes, Neo started walking.

***Break***

Tony had a few moments where he swam through the thick fog of unconsciousness into consciousness, but he couldn't make sense of what was going on. He felt like he was moving but no one was hitting him awake so he hadn't passed out from torture again.

He was a little more coherent the fourth time and when he saw the light of day he tried to make a run for it hoping he could get away from whoever had him. But all he succeeded in doing was falling onto the sand. He didn't feel so good after his landing and he knew he was being pulled back into unconsciousness again but a shadow passed over him again and he struggled to open his eyes. Tony saw the most beautiful long black-lashed emerald eyes he had ever seen before he was out like a light, and the last thing he thought was that he had defied his expectations and made it into heaven.

Neo knew it wasn't good. It seemed that Anthony had a concussion. As he knelt over the lying man Neo saw him open his eyes for a few seconds before he passed out again. Running his hands soothingly through the dirty black hair of the other man Neo wished he knew healing spells that could work. But thanks to the books from Hecate he knew that magic could work without an incantation if the intent was strong enough, so Neo focused on what he wanted. Heal, repair, renew, with his focus on these simple words magic flowed out in golden swirls and sunk below the skin under his fingers. Seeing that it was working Neo moved closer and then bent down to cradle Anthony's head in his hands as he moved the man's torso onto his lap. He let his magic fulfill his wish. When the magic started to feel like it was slowing Neo moved his hands down Anthony's arms and over his chest avoiding the metal in the center. It knit the torn muscles back together, repaired the broken blood vessels, and mended the fractured and cracked ribs. Neo could feel it, he had been developing a deeper connection to his magic and he could feel it moving through the other man's body.

Magic had always been a part of his life but Neo felt like it was evolving into something more than it was before. Just like his Mage Sight had slowly grown to be able to do more, his magic kept changing. It was like it was connected to his nerve endings now and when it moved he could feel what it was touching like it was his own hand, his own senses.

While he was meditating during a lesson with Jormungandr he found out something strange, his magic was semi-sentient. After that Neo had been thinking about it often. His magic was being connected to his instincts; it was like his unconscious thoughts had been tied to his magic and sometimes it had even reacted without him using a spell. He remembered the stray arrow that had almost shot him in the back of the neck just the day before. His instincts told him that there was incoming danger and before he could utter the shield spell a strong shield appeared and a protective feeling thrummed through his core.

After that day he noticed how his senses would find possible dangers and his magic would awaken at his slightest thought. His mind and magic were becoming one and he didn't know how to feel about it before, but as he embraced the feeling of his magic healing Stark it seemed to solidify into place and balanced out. Neo felt his magic like he felt his fingers.

When he was done healing Anthony, Neo tested his magic. Instead of thinking about a spell he thought about moving it like a hand as he decided on making sparks in the air he saw small flashes of light appear in front of his face. The he thought of conjuring a bird and out of thin air a small finch appeared and flew away.

Neo's eyes widened that had never happened before, "Wow," he muttered and then a childish grin spread across his face. 'One more test,' he thought. Then he thought about something he wanted to happen.

A small mound of sand started to swirl in a little tornado, and then it turned into a small sandy dog that started to bounce around in the air. As he willed it to change shape Neo felt like a little kid again. He gathered more sand with a thought and turned them into different animals making them run around through the air and play tag. He laughed out loud but decided that that was enough. Most of the sand fell back onto the ground but a small ball of sand came closer, and Neo watched as his magic turned it into a tiny copy of the armor that he had in his locket before the sand became glass. He plucked the figurine out of the air and put it in his pocket.

"Now that's magic," he whispered as he smiled down at the sleeping man before a pout showed on his face, "and you weren't even watching. You're such a bad audience Anthony," Neo teased the unconscious man.

He realized he had taken enough of a break and lifted the sleeping man into his arms carrying him like a bride as he continued toward what he hoped was a place where he could find help.

Soon after that he heard a helicopter in the distance and he could almost see a small spot on the horizon, but it was still very far away. It seemed to be circling around and would soon be heading in their direction.

Neo laid Anthony on the ground and slowly woke him up with his magic. As the older man's eyes opened Neo looked into his eyes and cast a memory spell on him, "You walked here from where you crashed after your escape. Right now you're very exhausted from the long walk and you're going to sleep for a little while."

Deep in a trance, Anthony nodded and slowly sunk back into the sand as he closed his eyes. Neo sat there and provided shade until the helicopter started getting close enough that the men inside would see them. He hid under an illusion that made him look like a sand dune and watched as Anthony was picked up by a man who seemed to be his friend.

Seeking out Death through there connection he told her, 'I'm finished here, so I'll be heading back to camp before I'm late for my lessons with Chiron.'

A feeling of thanks came with Death's reply, "_That's good news, thank you, Master._"

With that he was gone, teleporting back to the entrance of Camp Half-Blood.

***Break***

Tony Stark sat in his private plane trying to drink away the last few days and the memories were slowly starting to dull for a minute, but he couldn't bring himself to close his eyes and it wasn't actually flashbacks to the cave. It wasn't the pain either, because he was feeling fine and he had gotten his butt kicked plenty of times while he was in school thanks to his attitude.

Every time he closed his eyes he saw the most beautiful pair of green eyes he had ever seen. But the thing keeping him awake was the sound of a voice. He couldn't remember the words but when he closed his eyes he could see those two shining emeralds, and he heard that soothing voice again. But the harder he tried to remember the more he got frustrated that he couldn't remember and it was keeping him awake.

Sometime later Tony had finally succeeded in falling asleep and he dreamed of green eyes and a soothing voice while a feeling of peace kept him from waking.

***Break***

Elric followed after his young Lord as they exited the bank they had been in for the last two hours. His young master had all of his affairs in order now. A sizable amount of money in the billions had been put into an account that Neo was given a card to (and he still had the infinite money on the Lotus Casino card). That's when Elric thought back to the conversation he had with Lady Death.

*Flashback*

"That folder contains all of the correct documentation for one Neo Evan Thorson; a 17 year old young man with dual-citizenship in Britain and America, who's Father and Mother died in a home invasion and has been taken care of for the last 16 years by his guardian while they traveled around the world. Thankfully I have ways of making sure that the paperwork is not questioned. It lists Neo as a recently emancipated minor who was under the care of Azrael Nightshade until he turned 17. Even the world Governments will find everything in order. I ask that once you arrive you make sure that Neo receives the folder, and that he goes to the bank listed to have those accounts turned over to him, as soon as possible. These accounts are under the Aliases for his parents and have been set up as an inheritance, it is already stipulated that when he turns 17 he will have access to those accounts. Here take this," she handed over a photo, "It's the alley next to the bank so Neo will be able to just "pop in". Everything is his and his alone," she turned to look Elric in the eye. "I will hold you responsible for punishing anyone who dares to trick him into giving his money, or anything else, to an unworthy cause."

"Of course, I would never let my young Lord be taken for a fool by a plebian, mortal or otherwise," Elric responded.

"Good once he has his money situated I will leave the decision up to him if he wants to invest it or not. You may leave now. I trust you remember where to find him?" Death finished.

"Yes, Lady Death," with a final bow Elric was gone.

Elric had gone straight to Camp Half-Blood after his meeting with Death. The Spirits arrival was quiet as he passed through the barrier of the Camp, and he was able to find his young Master quickly.

It was when he decided to announce his presence to his new Master that the trouble started.

Elric walked out from the shade of a tree as he watched his Master move gracefully while he spared with another teenager. Neo wasn't the first person to notice him though.

Luke had a group of younger kids he was teaching and he was the first one to notice the white haired guy step out of the shadows and when he started to walk toward Neo while his brothers back was turned Luke moved to stop him. As he ran to intercept the new man, Luke saw how his eyes never left Neo.

'This guys giving me bad vibes,' Luke told himself. And the man's eyes set off his instinct to kill a threat, because Luke had only seen eyes like that on a monster.

Luke swung his sword at the monster trying to kill it while it was distracted but in a blur the man brought his arm up and intercepted his sword with a small dagger.

While Luke was putting as much pressure into the blade his opponent seemed to barely exert himself and thankfully that was when Neo noticed something wrong as all the other kids started to react to the stranger.

Neo turned and saw what was going on. "Stop," he yelled hoping that Luke would listen to him, but Luke was not the first one to react to his command.

Elric jumped out of Luke's range and sheathed his dagger in its hiding place so quickly no one saw exactly where it had disappeared to.

The spirit bowed to his Master, which angered Luke due to being so casually dismissed as a threat.

The young god stopped his half-brother from striking out at the spirit again, before he quickly explained why Elric was there by saying he was a gift/bodyguard and was there to work as his servant.

Luke apologized to Neo instead of the one he attacked like he would have, which was a notion that passed over the spirits head, as he was under the belief that as a guardian the attacker was supposed to apologize to the Master that the servant belonged to. It was a case of cultural difference and Neo was pretty sure he was the only one who got it.

*End of Flashback*

After the incident at camp Elric gave the folder to Neo and they had quickly left for California, Neo hoping they could avoid any more trouble and Elric loyally following his Master's orders.

After saving a man the day before Neo wasn't looking forward to today since it had started out so badly. The worst part was that he still had that bad feeling.

As they stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street Elric saw a car coming toward them, they were the only two crossing and the car tried to stop but it would have hit them if Elric hadn't grabbed his young Lord and quickly got them both out of the way.

Elric let Neo down on his feet and they both glanced at the two men who were getting out of the car.

Happy Hogun's heart was still pounding as he got out of the vehicle to see if the two men he had almost hit were alright. Tony got out of the other side of the car and they both walked to the men on the sidewalk.

"I'm so sorry, are you alright?" Happy asked.

Neo gave a blasé smile, "I'm fine, it's a good thing my new bodyguard is very good at his job," he laughed. It was actually funny because he really hadn't needed Elric's help but it did keep him from having to use magic in public. He thought it was ironic to be more worried about what would happen if he had tried to save himself than the fact he had almost been run over.

They stood there for a minute and Happy thought it was weird that Tony hadn't said anything because he knew his boss hated awkward silences. Happy looked over and noticed that the genius was standing there with a shocked look on his face.

Of course Tony was shocked he hadn't expected the emerald eyes and voice that had been haunting his dreams to show-up on an attractive male face and coming from a teenager his bodyguard had almost run over.

Tony Stark being the man he was, wasn't left speechless for long, "That's good because it would be a terrible thing to have a bodyguard that was bad at his job. I mean Happy here may occasionally try to run over strangers but he's still my go to guy."

"Gee, thanks Boss," Happy spoke in a melancholy tone.

"No, don't worry. Honestly, it is fine and I'm sure it was a mistake," he gave the older man a reassuring smile, "It's Happy, right?" He held out his hand and when the driver nodded Neo made the proper introductions, "I'm Neo Thorson and this is my butler and bodyguard Elric Graves."

Elric nodded, "Pleasure," he said in his deep silky tone.

"Likewise," Tony said with a raised eyebrow, "Is it a prerequisite for butlers to be so formal, because even my A.I. Jarvis sounds like that, but I designed and programmed him." Tony turned to Neo, "So where were you headed before you met me? Which should be the highlight of your day, really, meaning it's all downhill from here. Tony Stark, just call me Tony," Tony gave Neo a confident smile as they shook hands, and that was when Happy got the feeling his boss was flirting with the kid standing in front of him.

"Neo, and actually I wasn't really planning on going anywhere. Maybe just walk around the city and then grabbing something to eat before I find a hotel. I'm from New York…" Neo was cut off in the middle of his cover story by Tony.

"Well then, why don't I give you a ride? I have a quick press conference but after that I can take you out to lunch as an apology? How does a burger sound?" Tony offered. He didn't know why this guy was stuck in his head but he wouldn't let him leave after just meeting "the man of his dreams" literally.

"Uhm," Neo hesitated and looked at Elric.

Thinking he was helping Elric informed his Master, "There is nothing else planned for this morning, sir. You are free to join Mr. Stark."

"So that's a yes?" Tony wheedled.

"Yes," Neo replied, as he admired Tony's charisma of a man who is so used to getting what he wants. It was also good to see that he was doing well considering the first time Neo met him the day before but there were shadows darkening his eyes. As expected Tony was suffering from his captivity, and Neo could see the front that Tony was putting up so he took down a mental note to break down that particular mask.

They were all in Tony's car with Happy and Elric in the front before Tony asked, "I can tell that you're from England. Are you just in California sightseeing?"

"Oh no, I recently moved to New York, but I had to come to the west coast for business. Though I won't be here for long I have to head back to New York soon, you see my Uncle and Cousins are coming to visit and I plan to travel back with them when they head home. I'll stay a little while at their place. It's a small vacation really, before I come back to the U.S. and see what I will do with the rest of my life."

"So I guessing you just moved out of your parents place? What brings you here?" Tony asked hoping to get more information out of the younger man.

"Oh no, I never lived with my parents. I've been living with a guardian since I was small and we've been traveling, but I turned 17 a little while ago and decided that I would take my inheritance and settle down for a few years hopefully." Neo replied.

"And you chose New York?"

Neo just smiled, "Someone suggested it." And he was starting to think that the reason he had to travel across the whole United States of America wasn't such a coincidence, Death was up to something.

Their conversation continued until Neo asked Tony was he did for work to afford a "fancy car and driver". Tony saw the honestly curious look on Neo's face and was surprised that someone actually didn't know him.

"Well I'm Tony Stark. Most people call me a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and they seem to be impressed," he gloated.

"Well that does sound impressive, but what do I care about what other people think. If we're going to be friends Tony, I think you should now that I do not put my faith in what other people say. I was well know and a little bit of a celebrity while I was living in London, and the only things popular opinion taught me, were people give their opinions on things they know nothing about while most of the time news papers say whatever they have to, to sell issues. I didn't ask what other people say about you, I asked you about what you do." The smile that spread across Neo's face made Tony falter for a moment, it was teasing and sarcastic and completely genuine. At that second Tony promised himself that if his attitude didn't scare Neo off, he would keep the other around.

"I used to work on designing weapons for my company," Neo noticed the tone of Tony's voice change.

"Used to?" he questioned.

"I'm thinking about changing things, it will probably have the board members jumping ship but I'm not going to back down. That's part of the reason for the press conference."

"Hmm…well I don't know too much about it, but if your company starts loosing investors I know what I'll be investing in," Neo glanced at the front passenger seat, "My guardian did express her wishes for me to invest my money, right Elric?"

"Yes, sir," the white haired man replied.

Tony looked surprised, "You don't need to do that I'm sure I'll be able to pick the company back up with some of the projects I can come up with."

"I know that. I just want to stick it to them by buying up the stock they will be selling cheep and then watch as you make my investment triple later. I'm a little vindictive when it comes to dealing with disloyal people, and the fact that I will never sell those shares back makes me happy inside." Neo gave his imitation of the grin he learned from Magnum, it was almost scary with how vicious it seemed.

"That's a lot of faith from someone who doesn't know me," Tony said questioningly.

"I'm a good judge of character, and that's because it doesn't take me long to understand people. So far I know that you are a different man from who you were before, and right now you're trying to figure out whom that new man you saw in the mirror this morning is. I may not know you and you may need some time to know yourself, but there's nothing about you that tells me I can't trust you, and until I feel otherwise it's going to stay that way."

Tony was speechless for a minute before the car came to a stop outside of the building Tony's press conference would be held in. They all got out of the car and walked inside.

Neo and Elric were introduced to Ms. Pepper Potts before the conference began, and stood near her waiting for Tony to give his speech.

That's how they met one Agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. It seemed that the agent was hoping to "debrief" Tony on how he escaped, which Neo understood as them asking questions that seemingly had no relevance and then putting it in a file that would hopefully never see the light of day again. It was the reason Neo really did not like governments, most of the time a governments priorities were not the things he would spend time focusing on. Instead of worrying about how Tony escaped, they should be wondering how Tony was caught. Usually a countries military would be prepared for an attack on foreign soil so how did the ambush happen in the first place? Neo knew something was wrong but he didn't have any information, yet. But the agent left quickly and the conference started.

There was so much that Tony hadn't said, Neo knew, and it looked like there were even more things he had been carrying with him about his father. The end of Tony's speech wasn't a surprise to Neo because Tony had mentioned it before. Still Neo turned to Elric, "Are you familiar with the stock market of this world?"

"Yes, my Lord. I have been to this world before and I have learned everything I would need to in order to serve my Master. I assume you would like me to start buying those shares?" he informed Neo.

"Yes, all the shares that come available. Tony will need someone to help keep his Company financially stable and as much as Mr. Stane seems willing to run interference, I think it would be best to lend a hand. Once you have bought all available stock I would like you to arrange for any stock owned by parties who are only concerned with the future of the company due to their own financial gain, to be bought as well."

Elric gave a small bow and left. He seemed to disappear in the crowd and reached the bank that they had left earlier in the next second. By the time he left Neo would have a 39% investment in Stark Enterprises. The other 61% belonging mostly to Tony and 10% of that to Obadiah Stane, which eliminated the board members from the equation and would drive Obadiah crazy trying to get into contact with the man who had bought the rest of the company shares.

A couple of seconds after Elric left Neo, Tony had taken Neo back to the car through the chaos of the reporters. They sat in silence for a second before Tony turned to Neo.

"So about that burger?"

Neo laughed, "Sounds good, but you're buying, alright?"

"You got it. Happy we're going to make a stop on the way back to the house," Tony announced and Happy just nodded and kept an eye out for a drive-thru burger joint.

"Oh but, I would hate to impose and I would need to find a place to stay before it gets too late," Neo tried to excuse himself but Tony wasn't worried.

"Then I guess you and your bodyguard will just have to stay at my place," he grinned. "I think that it's the least I can do for what happened before. Right, Hap?"

The man in the driver seat just nodded, "Whatever you say, Boss?"

***Break***

They had been at Tony's home, which was on a cliff to Neo's surprise, for an hour before Elric showed up. Neo had felt bad that Elric hadn't eaten yet but his servant just dismissed it with his usual charm and humility and went to the kitchen to get something from the fridge. Neo could here Elric talking to who he thought must be Jarvis; Neo was introduced to the A.I. when they arrived. It was a lovely home and Tony quickly decided that he would show his wide-eyed guest the rest of it. They had gone up to the floors above the ground floor before making their way to the basement.

When they entered Tony's workshop Neo was having the time of his life. It was so surprising to see the things Tony had made for his home and when he saw all of the inventions lying around on the work tables it was like walking into the genius' head. There were fascinating and interesting gadgets and Tony was wearing a smug look as Neo marveled at everything.

Neo laughed in childish joy when he bumped into a small machine that turned out to be a cut little robot who made mechanical noises like it was talking. It seemed that the robot was just as curious about Neo it started using its metal arm to prod gently at his arms and it raised its camera high enough to see Neo's face and then it got close enough that Neo had to move back before he got hit on the noise by accident.

"Would you stop that," Tony chided. The small robot made an unhappy noises but it soon turned into happy noises as it did the same thing to Tony which had Neo laughing again.

"I think he's cute and he reminds me of a friend, his name was Dobby," Neo said.

"Yeah, well this is Dummy and he takes after his namesake."

"What a coincidence, their names almost sound the same," Neo smile as he looked over to Tony. The spark of happiness in his eyes and his flushed cheeks made Tony smile. "Did you make him?"

"Yeah I made him when I was a kid. I should have scraped him a long time ago but I keep him around." Tony walked over to his computers and started pulling up different information. Tony hadn't told him to leave but Neo decided to say, "I can leave if you're busy, or stay and help if you need an extra set of hands?"

"Not right now, I'm only in the designing stages so I have a lot of data to put into the computer, but you don't have to go." Tony walked away from the computers and up to Neo, "Excuse me," he said while reaching for a tablet that he had left on a bench that the younger man was standing in front of. Neo didn't have time to move and Tony's chest brushed against his arm. A electric shock hit the metal ring in Tony's chest and they both jumped.

"Sorry," Neo said, "I must have built up some static, I guess?"

Tony cleared his throat, "Yeah."

"It looks like it's a little crowded for two," Neo licked his lips and Tony glanced at the now shining lips. "I'll just get out of your way I'm sure I can find something to do up stairs." Neo said and quickly retreated out of the room before Tony could stop him. The genius was conflicted between his need to start work and the want to follow after the younger man. Tony finally decided that he would work now and play later, which was unusual for him.

Neo set his foot down on the 1st floor and pulled out his phone deciding that he would text Loki who was the only other number programmed into his phone besides Hermes.

*I won't be able to make it back tonight, don't wait up. – N*

*Why? Nothing's wrong I trust? – L*

*Not, yet. – N*

*I just told the others the distressing news. They have expressed how terribly they will miss sleeping with you :) – L*

*That sounds so wrong and you said it on purpose! – N*

*I am a god of Mischief and Chaos, it's in my nature. Be safe and call if you need anything. – L*

*I will, see you when I get back. – N*

With Loki's accepting attitude and the way he tended to let Neo do his own thing it was easy for them to get along. But he also had to send a message to Remus who would tell Sirius, Chiron, Luke and Percy. He told Jarvis he was taking a quick walk outside to look around and he would be back, while he was out he sent the message that would reach them in a few minutes. His phone buzzed a little later and he looked to see a new message.

*Hey, bro. I guess I forgot to give you my number. Remus just told me you would be gone for awhile. It wouldn't have anything to do with a girl, would it? ;) Don't worry you don't have to tell me, just have a good time and stay safe. I'll see you later. – Luke*

Neo just rolled his eyes and sent a message back,

*No, sorry for bursting your bubble but I just got caught up in something. I'll be fine so I'll see you when I make it back. – N*

He programmed Luke's number into his phone bringing the total number of contacts to a whopping three. He felt kind of cynical about it when he realized that three was the most he had ever had.

Neo walked back inside and into the kitchen to find Elric. It seemed that the resourceful Spirit had found the supplies to make tea. A plate of cinnamon cookies that must have come out of a box sat on the table, and actually complimented the ginger and chamomile tea that Elric had given Neo. All of those ingredients insured whoever enjoyed them would feel very comfortable, and probably fall asleep.

"Should I take some to Mr. Stark, sir?" Elric asked indifferently, which was a dead giveaway of his intentions; it seemed that Elric was a mother hen.

The thought made him smile and Neo was going to reply when he was interrupted by the front door opening. He went to check the entrance through the kitchen door and found Obadiah Stane walking in with a pizza box. Jarvis must have told Tony that Obadiah was there, because the genius came upstairs a few minutes later. The two long time friends started having a chat.

It was difficult not to hear what they were saying and after a few minutes Neo didn't care, he started listening intently as Obadiah questioned Tony about his escape and the machine that he had built. Obadiah tried to get Tony to share his research but the younger refused.

Even if he had been intentionally eavesdropping on the conversation, Neo was very relieved when Obadiah left. It was one thing to meet someone who gives off bad vibes, but it's a whole different story when you meet someone that makes you want to leave the country. It was almost as bad as the first time he met Luke while he was being possessed.

With Obadiah gone Tony headed back to the lab, something was up and it made him wonder what his dad's old partner was up to. He had just started working on the specs for the original suit he built in the desert again, when he heard Jarvis.

"Sir, I believe you have a visitor."

Turning, Tony saw Neo and Elric standing behind him. The latter was carrying a tray with a steaming cup and what looked like the cookies Pepper usually bought and stashed in Tony's kitchen. Elric held out the cup and Tony thinking it was coffee accepted it and took a sip. He had to stop himself from spitting it back out, he had not been expecting tea.

A mischeivious grin slowly spread across Neo's face as he watched Tony's eyes widen and he tried to stop himself. Tony was an American and Neo knew that most of them drank coffee because they ran on caffeine and couldn't appreciate a good cup of tea. Tony saw his face and gave I mild glare causing Neo to laugh.

"It's just a little snack before you go to bed, Anthony. You don't need coffee at this time of night," Neo informed his somewhat surly companion.

"I'm pretty sure the last time I checked, I was an adult so I know when my bedtime is, thanks. And I'm pretty sure that I've pulled more all nighters than you. I know what I'm doing." Tony said before he got a curious look on his face when he noticed something Neo had said. "I never told you my name was Anthony. I try not to mention that to people because I prefer Tony."

"That would be my doing. Earlier I informed Mr. Thorson of what I had found out about you. Among the things I mention was the fact your name is Anthony Edward Stark. After all, you did express that you where well known and I thought that some factual information should be shared now to get it out of the way later." His voice had remained the same and even Tony's high tech security hadn't called Elric out on his blatant lie.

"Yeah, but someone also said that he didn't care what other people thought," Tony turned to Neo.

The new god just rolled his eyes, "I don't care for gossip, but I'm sorry if you're angry, Tony. I just wanted to know you a little better," Neo said while pointedly looking away from Tony.

'Ugh, you did it again, real smooth Tony,' the billionaire scolded himself. He didn't know what to say so he went with, "I don't think Pepper will be happy when she sees her snacks are gone."

Neo laughed then turned and walked to the door, "I'll be sure to get her some more than, oh and Tony…you're welcome."

Two hours later, Neo felt he had been nice to let Tony work this long. He could tell that Tony was very willing to pull an "all nighter" and it was up to Neo to make sure he got some sleep. It was ironic that, being younger than most of the people he knew, Neo was the most put together.

"Jarvis, is Tony still awake?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark is still in his workshop. Is there something I can help you with?" the A.I. voiced in his usual polite tone.

"No, on the contrary Jarvis, I'm helping you. At this rate you and Tony will be working all night and he will lose sleep, so I'm going to go down and make sure he goes to bed. Could you make sure everything gets saved and shut down?" Neo said while walking down the stairs and Jarvis gave an affirmative to his request as the glass door to Tony's workshop opened automatically.

Watching the eccentric genius imputing data Neo smiled. Most of what Tony was doing was going over his head, but he could see a partially finished 3D model of the original suit of armor being pieced together by the bits of information. Loud rock music was vibrating through the sound system Tony had installed. Tony seemed to party as hard as he worked, and he was passionate about his inventions. Neo was reminded of Fred and George as he watched the quick hands of the older man glide flash across the keyboard.

"Jarvis turn the music down, please?" he practically had to yell over the music but it was quickly gone. Neo sighed in relief because his sensitive ears no longer had to take the abuse.

Tony stopped his work and looked around until he noticed Neo standing there with a smug smirk that screamed, 'your A.I. listens to me, so haha'. "I was listening to that, and I don't like it when people mess with my stuff. Jarvis turn the music back on!"

"No, Jarvis. Tony you need to get some sleep. I know you've had a long day because I was around for some of it, so just take a break. Everything will be here in the morning, and when you wake up you'll be ready with even more brilliant ideas and won't be so tired. Come on," Neo said then nodded to the door indicating that he wanted Tony to leave first.

"The offer does sound tempting but I've got it handled."

Neo sighed in annoyance this time, "Fine, I didn't want to have to resort to this, but I don't know what else to do," he walked over to the inventor, and before Tony could stop him Neo had hoisted the man out of his chair then carried him out of the room and up the stairs.

Tony shouted in surprise but was quick to demand the he be put down.

As they passed the living room where Elric had been cleaning, said Butler dropped the polishing rag and stepped behind his Master to follow up the second flight of stairs leading to the bedrooms. "Should I help you, sir?"

Neo thought about it, "Yes, start a shower for Mr. Stark and, if you must, make sure he washes up. I'll make some tea and a light sandwich, hopefully that will make sure he doesn't wake up hungry. Once Tony is out of the shower he needs to get ready for bed, again I am giving you permission to make sure he does so."

"Right away, sir," Elric assured as he moved passed them in the hallway to make it to Tony's room first. He left the door open and Neo walked into the bedroom seconds after but he could already hear the water running.

"Look, I appreciate the concern and all, but I'm done playing around," Tony said his breathing had gotten a little faster and Neo realized before the billionaire that Tony was having a mild panic attack.

Neo set Tony on his feet and looked him in the eyes. "Just breathe with me Tony, deep breaths," Neo started to exaggerate the movement of his shoulders and breathed louder so Tony could see and hear his breathes, after a minute it had worked and Tony was back to breathing normally.

Neo made sure that when he spoke his voice was calm and gentle, "I understand what it's like, I may not know the details but I can tell. You grew up learning to do things on your own, and even though there were people around you, many of them never bothered to make sure you were alright. The people around you seem to think that you don't need advice or help, but that's not true is it. You've learned to be independent but you really never learned how to take care of yourself properly. You worked hard and it became normal to work until it was done, no exceptions, even if you didn't sleep, eat or drink for days. And now, everyone around you keeps demanding more from you, they add stress with their demands and harp on you to get the job done while being who they want you to be, but when you're not acting or doing what they expect they abandon you and curse you.

"But there are people who are completely different and will stick by you to help you. Those people may be few but they genuinely care. It's easy to keep those people at arm's length too, and just like others you're afraid to let them in because you worry that they will abandon you in the end. It's hard for you to accept help. I know how that feels, and it took awhile for me to open up too. But I need you to trust me, Tony, I'm not here to hurt you and as long as you'll accept it I will be here to help."

Tony was speechless and a little uneasy. This kid he had just met had nailed most of his bad traits in one go but he hadn't listed them as reasons to hate Tony, just as facts. While glossing over the fact that Tony's family had been less than great, the genius had felt that the younger wasn't just talking about him, and then Tony understood. Like the saying goes, 'it takes one, to know one'.

"Yeah, well I don't need a nanny so you can ease up on the orders. Unless you're really aiming for something else, then I would be happy to let you help me in the shower," Tony said letting his usual flirty manner shine through.

Neo rolled his eyes, "Just get in the bloody shower you incorrigible show pony," the words may have been harsh but his playful tone and smile told Tony that Neo was just teasing.

"Alright, but it's your lose," Tony said to Neo's back as he left.

Neo walked back in a little while later with a sandwiches and tea for three. The thought that Tony's house was riddled with cameras had stopped him from using magic but he had become an expert at quickly preparing food since he was a child, so he didn't take long. Tony was still in the shower. Neo set the tray with the food down before he peeked in. He saw Elric facing toward the door as their eyes met and Neo could have sworn Elric was giving him a pleading look.

The water shut off and Elric stiffened before he said, "Do you require help Mr. Stark? It has only been four minutes." Neo snickered.

"All I needed was four minutes," Tony said from the other side of the frosted glass.

"I would question the truth of that less if I had not seen the state you were in before getting in Mr. Stark, but I suppose I could check if I must," Elric had reached for the shower door handle and was opening it slowly and deliberately.

"Only if you promise to be gentle," Tony joked before he caught the movement of the door and quickly grabbed it and shut it closed, "On second thought, I think I'll just take some time to double check."

The shower turned on again, "I'm sure the only reason we're having this conversation is because you like my bathroom and need an excuse to stay. You know I could have the other ones remodeled if that would make you feel better?"

"Oh yes, it's terribly fascinating, especially with its white walls and the company it so delightful. How could I ever depart such an amazing place?" sarcasm dripped from Elric's words. The white haired man then turned to his young Master, and they mad matching sparks of mirth in their eyes.

It was only another six minutes until the water turned off again but it seemed to appease the Guardian Spirit, who didn't say anything this time.

Tony stepped out of the shower and noticed Neo, he gulped, it was new for him to feel self-conscious but he had a giant hole in his chest and scares he really didn't want to think about. The young man didn't stare though and seemed more concerned with the chain hanging from the leather band around his right wrist. So the billionaire quickly got dressed.

Neo of course didn't stare because he had already seen it, but his thoughts as he looked down started to actually distract him as Tony got his clothes on. The chain that had wrapped itself around his wrist along with the ancient sword was still a puzzle. Why had they suddenly shrunk and attacked themselves? Why did the chain seem to have a psychic connection to him? Neo had been puzzled and awed when it had suddenly responded to his subconscious wish, but he still hadn't figured out how and it was something that had been on his mind more frequently.

A comfortable silence fell as Elric left them to finish what he had started down stairs and whatever else the Spirit occupied his time with. They sat and ate for a while and a casual conversation started. It was almost half an hour before Neo realized he wasn't helping Tony get any sleep by keeping him awake.

"I think I'll do a bit of reading before I go to bed, night," Neo commented as he started to rise from his seat.

"You don't have to leave on my account," Tony joked, "besides you're already sitting down," he pointed out the chair Neo was sitting on that was in front of a matching desk.

It was more than that, Neo understood, so he decided he would indulge this hidden request.

"Thanks, mate," Neo said, and then asked Jarvis to call for Elric so he would bring up the book Neo had left on the kitchen counter. Elric left again, which let Tony and Neo talk for a while but it wasn't long before they were yawning, and it was only a minute later that the god and inventor were asleep.

He had been resting peacefully across Tony's desk until something woke him up, that's when Neo turned to find Tony tossing fitfully. Even if he was still half-asleep, Neo knew better than to shake him awake.

"Tony," Neo said, just above a whisper, "Hey Tony, wake up."

It worked and Tony woke with a start and sat up.

"Deep breathes," he said tiredly. When he heard the man's breathing steady Neo asked, "Nightmares?"

"How…"

"Do you want to know what I did, when I used to have nightmares every night?" he paused for a few seconds, "I embraced it. You have to feel it, understand it, and then you accept it and move on. But don't hide it. You're going to carry your memories and fears with you for the rest of your life. If you try to bury them they just get worse, festering like a wound. Then they come back with a vengeance at the worst times usually as panic attacks or hallucinations. So don't fight them. It's okay to be afraid, fear is natural, but you can't let that fear rule you. Everyone gets nightmares you just can't be afraid of going back to sleep."

Tony just rubbed his face and said, "It sounds like you have a death wish. Not many people would say they embrace fear."

"Oh no, don't get me wrong, I'm afraid of Death and it's a healthy fear, so a little word of advice, don't call Death a liar," Neo smirked at Tony's puzzled look, "But we both know that there are worse things to fear than death, like never-ending pain. There are monsters out there that will cause as much pain as they can to someone, before that person eventually dies one way or another. It happens and you can be afraid of it, like someone can fear drowning, falling, flying in an airplane, getting hit by a car, or just walking out of their house. The fact is people go to the beach or swim in a pool, they go skydiving or jump off a swing, and thousands of cars and planes transport people across the world every day and all of those people have to build up the courage to walk out their front door in the morning. In the end those people face their fears and are better for it. There will always be two kinds of fears, Good Fear and Bad Fear. Bad Fear can stop you from rational thought and most of the time it will get you killed. But Good Fear makes you more cautious and protects you from danger, because it's our self-preservation instinct and makes us both smarter and stronger. Tony, that," he says pointing at the glowing circle in the other mans chest, "proves you are strong. That says you are strong enough to not let death stand in your way, and strong enough to not let your fears make your decisions for you."

Neo sighed and started to leave, "Sure, I could say something like it will get better and 'time heals all wounds', or I could try and tell you how to get over it. But that's up to you, you have to choose what you're going to do...So, what are you going to do Tony?" he said just before he left the room.

_Author Note: Please tell me how I did with this I really want to know. Please read and review!_


	2. Chapter 1

_Author Note: All right! I'm finally posting my latest chapter. I hope everyone enjoys. The reviews that I got were surprisingly even between the people who wanted Neo to have one mate and those who wanted multiple mates,so I decided to stick with one. But the surprising thing was, I heard some really good arguments as to why Percy and Neo should not be together, one of those being the age difference, so Percy will not be paired with Neo. Thank you everyone who reviewed! I hope to get your feedback on this chapter. Don't worry if there is anything you don't like, I can take the criticism._

_Some of you might think this is a filler chapter, but it's important and necessary. Tony Stark is a character that, while I like the movie version, I feel needs to bring more to my story. So I introduced Tony and, of course, changed a few things (which will mater more later)._

_This is rated M for violence but right now it's pretty tame, so just wait ;-)_

"Blah." = normal speech

'Blah.' = thoughts

"_Blah_." = beast speech

"_Blah._" = Death's mental voice

***This*** = scene change

**The Law of Three**

**Chapter 1**

Percy had been hoping to see Neo and ask him to spar since he woke-up, but he hadn't seen the other camper yet. Luke had spotted Percy waiting around after his last practice session and walked over. Annabeth seeing her crush headed over to the Son of Poseidon also went to join the boy.

"Hey, Perce, what's up?" Luke asked when he got close enough to not have to yell. He smiled at Annabeth when she joined them.

"Huh," Percy said turning to the Son of Hermes, "Oh, hey Luke. Have you seen Neo?"

Luke shook his head, "Not since he left this morning. I did get a message after lunch that he would be gone for the rest of the day. Why?"

"Nothing really, I was just going to ask him to spar with me," the younger boy admitted with a shrug.

Luke knew he had some spare time, but when Luke was about to ask Percy if he wanted to spar together he was interrupted.

"You should be careful Percy," Annabeth cautioned, "Neo's dangerous."

Luke felt insulted by Annabeth's comment on his brother's behalf. "What's that supposed to mean?" he bit out the question angrily.

Annabeth flinched at Luke's tone and quickly realized what she had just said in front of Neo's brother. "I'm just saying that he may be a Son of Hermes, but he's also a Son of Hecate. She's a powerful goddess and she's dangerous. Not to mention he was claimed by Thor. I may not know him very well, but that makes Neo dangerous. He has Thor's strength, Hermes' cunning, and Hecate's magic."

Luke's jaw was stiff and his eyes burned with anger as he glared at the girl he thought was "smart", apparently she lost a few brain cells on her last quest. "You're right, Annabeth, you don't know Neo. It doesn't always matter who someone's Father of Mother is, everyone makes their own decisions. You should know by now that demigods might get their powers from their godly parent but they are the ones who choose how to use them. Neo may be the Son of Hecate and Thor but he has never hurt anyone who didn't attack him first and he only fought back in self-defense. I'm sick of the way everyone here is treating him, and sometimes I wish he would just knockout the people who keep talking behind his back. Especially since everyone here owes him their lives, or have you forgotten the fact that he saved this Camp from a War of the gods, and does the fact that he saved me mean nothing to you?"

"Of course I'm happy that you're safe Luke. If I had realized what was going on I would have tried to help you long before Neo even came to Camp." Annabeth said, using her last statement as a flimsy excuse to get back on Luke's good side, but he wasn't accepting it.

"Yeah, but you didn't. In fact, you never noticed anything. Neo was the first one to figure out something was wrong. That just shows that he's smarter that the people here. Maybe that's why you're so afraid of what he could do, because he's obviously better than the rest of us. I'm proud to have a brother like him, and I know that the other Sons of Hermes don't feel the same. But if I had to choose who I would go into battle with and die beside, I would choose him every time because he's obviously braver than most. He didn't wait around for a quest, when he saw something was wrong he left to fix it. He found the real Master Bolt and stopped Kronos from getting it. Then he saved you, Percy and Grover from the Lotus eater's trap. And the way I hear it it's thanks to Neo and his friends that Percy's Mom is safe and you were able to make it back to Olympus on time. Is this the kind of gratitude you give your rescuer? I'm not a Son of Apollo but even I can see your future's not looking too good right now, because when people find out that this is the thanks they get for saving you, most of them won't even try next time. But do you know what the worst thing is? I may not know him all that well but I do know, even with the way campers are acting towards him right now, Neo wouldn't hesitate to save everyone again because he's a hero and that's what heroes do." Luke had gotten into Annabeth's face and watched as his stinging words started to make the younger girl cry.

Annabeth felt a mix of emotions but her pride reared its ugly head and the terrible humiliation she felt at Luke's words made her strike out at him.

Luke grabbed Annabeth's hand as it came up to slap his face. They stared at each other as Annabeth tried to wrench her wrist out of his grasp. He watched as she clenched her jaw and her grey eyes turned steely. It was clear that she wouldn't listen to him and right now he really didn't want to bother with her. When Luke let go Annabeth ran away.

Watching as Luke's shoulders sagged and he let out a world weary sigh, Percy knew the other demigod was upset with the Daughter of Athena, but he also knew that everything Luke said was true and Annabeth would have to acknowledge the truth sooner or later.

"Uh, I'm just going to head back to my cabin, see you later Luke," he started to walk away but Luke spoke and Percy turned to him.

"Hey, Percy?" Luke questioned.

"Yeah," Percy replied.

"How do you feel about paying Neo a surprise visit?"

The Son of Poseidon's brow furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Luke let out another sigh, "To be honest?" he pause to think, "Things are getting a little too stale around here for me. I just want to get out of here for a while, so I'm inviting you along on a trip that may be dangerous, because what isn't dangerous in the lives of demigods, but it will definitely be better than hanging around here for summer vacation."

Percy looked at Luke's face as a mischievous smirk appeared. The offer actually sounded good and Percy quickly made up his mind, "Sure, but if Chiron catches us, I'm telling him it was all your idea."

"What about your fuzzy friend, Grover?"

"He's having too much fun right now and I don't want to put him through another life threatening experiences so soon." Percy said thinking about the poor Satyr who had been hanging around the daughters of Aphrodite lately.

Luke snickered he had seen the Satyr hanging out with the girls too. "Yeah sure, come on; let's go talk to Remus and Sirius."

They traveled up to the big house and met up with Neo's Uncles. When Luke told the two wizards about wanting to join Neo wherever he was, they agreed that they too felt like taking a break from the camp. They brought this up to Chiron who had returned and he decided that he would let them go. But he made them pack all of their weapons and made them swear to be careful. They had all of the things they packed ready and where walking out of the stone arch to Camp when they came across Loki and his sons. They had all met in the last three days and Sirius and Loki had made quick friends with both of them sharing a love for pranks. In the end Loki was able to convince them to wait until the next morning and they would all leave early after Remus packed up Neo's tent to take to him.

Loki went to sleep that night with a grin on his lips. The god of Chaos couldn't wait to get out of there; he may love the quiet times where he got to read but even with his trips to spy on Amora he was getting restless. He may not be exactly like his brother but Loki always enjoyed a good trip, especially when it had the promise of being interesting and Neo suddenly finding a reason to stay on the other side of the continent sounded very interesting.

***Break***

The morning after arriving in Malibu, Neo woke up early like usual. After taking a shower and getting ready for the day, he headed to the kitchen and passed by Tony's room on the way. He peeked in to check on the billionaire and found him asleep. Neo couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face as he kept walking down the hall.

Neo hadn't thought that Tony's house had been a mess the first time he saw it, but when he noticed how much cleaner the living room and kitchen were that morning he was surprised. The living room looked like it was brand new and every surface in the kitchen sparkled. His jaw went slack and his mouth started to water as he looked at the amazing picture perfect food that sat on the kitchen table and smelled the aromatic bouquet of tantalizing scents that drifted off of the steaming food. Perfectly cooked gourmet, eggs, sausage, crepes, omelets, French and stuffed toasts, pancakes and other food that were perfectly seasoned and topped with fruits and handmade syrup weighed down Tony's kitchen table.

Elric walked around the marble island in the middle of the room and brought Neo a cup of tea. His perfectly pressed suit was as impeccable as always. "Young Master, I did not know what you would prefer for breakfast so I asked the A.I. Jarvis for recipes that would include the ingredients that were already in the kitchen. Please, tell me if there is anything else I could get you."

Neo glance back at the five star foods, "No everything looks amazing, but I don't know if we can eat it all."

"I'm definitely keeping you around now," Tony's voice came from the kitchen door, "With food like that I may have an excuse to stop working and eat." The billionaire shuffled tiredly into the kitchen, and taking a strawberry off of the top of a plate of pancakes Tony popping it in his mouth.

The young god laughed and joked, "That sounds like high praise Elric."

The Spirit nodded politely, "Thank you Mr. Stark. Would you prefer coffee or tea this morning, and how do you take it?"

"Triple shot espresso, black," Tony said absentmindedly as he chose what he would eat for breakfast. He finally decided on a traditional California breakfast of fruit and a veggie omelet, and sat down to eat.

Watching as Tony latched onto the cup full of black liquid, Neo just shook his head and teased the slowly waking billionaire, "You poor man, yanks like you can't function without coffee, but with the way it looks it can't be good for you."

"No, it's not but what else can I do?" Tony mumbled and gave his coffee a contemplative look.

"Hmm…" Neo pretended to search his pockets but he summoned a vial of Pepper-Up from his locket. "Ah-hah! Here, try this it should get you going before you know it."

It seemed that Tony wasn't in a mood to question it, and in an uncharacteristic act he accepted the vial pulled the stopper and drank it quickly. Just as the taste of cinnamon touched his tongue, Tony was surprised that he was already starting to feel more alert.

Tony was fully awake when the doorbell gave a buzz and Jarvis announced that a group was waiting at the door. He made the usual assumption when he heard it was a group, "Reporters? I thought I told you not to allow them up the driveway, Jarvis."

"Yes sir, you did, but these men said they are Mr. Thorson's family," the A.I.'s mechanical voice sounded slightly insulted by what Tony said.

Neo perked up, "Who is it, Jarvis?"

"I was told that Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin and Mr. Odinson are here with your cousins, a brother and a friend you made at camp. Should I allow them in, sir?" The robot questioned his creator.

"Uh, I'm not sure…" Neo started to say.

"Sure, Jarvis let's meet them."

Neo just ran, he couldn't think of anything but making sure the people at the door were exactly who they said they were, for Tony's sake more than his own. His magic preceded him and started to search for the energies of the people outside. When Neo felt the familiar magic of Sirius, Remus and Loki, and his senses took in the presence of the godly and beastly, Neo relaxed. It was his family standing outside.

Neo may have been happy to see them but he didn't immediately open the door when he got to it, after all this is Sirius and Loki we're talking about.

"Jarvis do you have any hologram technology that you can use to project someone's image?" he asked quietly.

Jarvis proved his knowledge of human responses when he quietly replied, "All of the equipment for a projection is in the workshop, Mr. Thorson. I cannot project an image in this hallway."

"Remind me to talk to Tony about that later. I'm going to use my own projector, just don't tell Tony, okay?"

Neo didn't wait for a response before he had reached into his pocket to fake touching a device and cast an illusion. Then he walked to the door and the image followed. He opened the door and stepped to the side while the copy staid in front of the opening. As the door swung open Fenrir and a large black dog jumped at the image and fell right through it and onto the floor.

Fenrir turned when he heard someone laugh. A second Neo stood to the side and the first one seemed to disappear. The wolf god pouted, "That's not cool, you shouldn't trick people like that."

Neo smiled, "Yes, because jumping on people is so much nicer."He walked up to the two and flicked them both on the forehead, "Bad boys, no jumping," he teased in a tone reserved for reprimanding a misbehaving pet.

Of course Fenrir and Sirius didn't listen and they sprung up from the ground and latched onto Neo. The young god rolled his eyes and looked over at the rest of his family.

"Tony said to come on in," Neo told them.

Loki walked in as if he was a prince, which he usually did. Remus smiled and gave Neo a pat on the shoulder before reaching down and dragging Sirius into the house, the dog animagus began to whine. Luke greeted him as he followed the others. Jormungandr was standing next to Percy and they both seemed to hesitate at the door.

"Well, come on you two," Neo smiled at them and they both smiled back.

"Thanks," Percy spoke as he entered.

Jormungandr pursed his lips before his tongue came out to wet them, and his ice-blue eyes scanned the interior, "It smells like too much coffee and stale sex. I feel like I'm going to suffocate by just walking in there."

"It doesn't surprise me," Neo stated with a laugh, "but you can just sniff something that smells better when the scent gets to be too much."

Jormungandr gave a predatory grin as he quickly stepped forward, and buried his nose in Neo's hair while he wrapped both arms around Neo in a constrictive hug. The serpent god had to work his arms in between the younger god and his brother. Fenrir growled when his cuddling was interrupted by his older brother, and tightened his grip around Neo as he clung to the others side.

Jormungandr inhaled deeply, "Hmm, I guess that could work," he said as he let go of Neo, which finally allowed the younger god to breath, and grabbed both younger gods and lifted them over his shoulder. "Come on you two," he said repeating Neo's earlier words.

Neo couldn't help it, he was laughing all the way down the hall and into the large kitchen. It was good to finally have a family he could have fun with even if they were a bit strange, but what family wasn't?

Introductions had already begun and it was Jormungandr and Fenrir's turn to be introduced. Neo and Fenrir where put down on their feet before Jormungandr spoke, "I'm Jo and this is my brother Dolf. Sorry if he pees on the carpet, we're still working on house training him."

"Hey!" Fenrir shouted as he glared daggers at his older brother and continued to hug Neo. Fenrir then bent down and whispered to Neo, "I am so rolling over on him in the middle of the night."

Tony and his guest had a chat over breakfast which was quickly finished by the group.

"So what are you all doing here?" Tony questioned.

"Yeah, I thought you were planning on meeting me in New York." Neo said trying to clue everyone in on the cover story, "Did you have to take another plane from New York after you arrived?"

"No it was mostly spur of the moment so we decided to call in a favor from my friend in New York. We arrived this morning." Loki replied with a growing smirk, "But I see why you stayed in Malibu. I know how much you like the West Coast."

Neo narrowed his eyes at his Uncle, though he had to blink when hair fell into his eyes. Neo had recently noticed that his hair was growing longer and he was planning on mentioning it to Luke so his demigod brother could help him cut it. His hair wasn't the only thing growing lately. Neo had thought that he was getting taller and when he compared himself with Jormungandr he could see that he was right. He also realized that he didn't look like a teenager anymore, as he looked at his face in the mirror that morning he could have passed for mid-twenties.

Before he left the kitchen Tony had invited everyone to stay as long as they wanted, then he left for his workshop. That day after breakfast Neo took the time to show them around the house. Elric fell into a routine of acting like the world's greatest butler, while everyone else went about their own schedules. Loki still left after Lunch and was gone for almost four hours before he came back. Jormungandr, Fenrir, Luke, Percy, Remus and Sirius all decided to drag Neo down to the beach and Elric followed after his master. When Loki came back he joined them, and everyone enjoyed the sunny day and salty sea air. The serpent god and the young Son of Poseidon had a diving contest. Luke and Neo spent time with them out in the water. Fenrir had fun running through the surf. He would dig up hermit crabs then let them go before searched out another one. The poor wolf god let out a loud yelp as he went to pull out a hermit crab but discovered it was a lobster that pinched his hand before he could drop it. After that Fenrir left the shore and joined the others in the water. Remus stayed on shore and kept a close eye on everyone with Elric doing the same. Sirius had swam with everyone until he had gotten tired, then he walked back onto the shore and collapsed onto Remus' lap. Sirius fell asleep as the other wizard ran his fingers through his fur. They all played until the sun started to go down and their stomachs began to grumble.

Sirius was walking next to Neo who looked down with a curious look, "Why are you a dog?"

"Since it would only be for today, Sirius decided it would be more fun as a dog," Remus replied.

Neo looked at the shape-shifter, "Who said it would only be for today?"

Remus blinked, "We thought you would be returning to camp this evening. You said that you would just stay the night."

"I never said that, besides I've got a gut feeling that something is about to happen. I think Tony's in danger and I promised Death that I would keep him alive, so until the coast is clear, I'm staying." Neo looked down at the black dog, "I wonder if Tony will like having a dog in the house? Looks like you'll have to get used to eating off the floor again, Padfoot."

Neo had to hide his smirk when the wizard in dog form started to whine. Remus chuckled and Sirius gave him a betrayed look.

Remus just shook his head, "Don't be so dramatic, Padfoot, it will be fine." When Sirius hung his head Remus pat his back in comfort.

"So what do you want us to do, Bro?" Luke asked.

"Stay, I'm not too sure what will happen but I could probably use the help later," Neo responded.

"What kind of feeling are you getting?" Jo questioned.

"I feel like there's a traitor hiding behind a curtain but I haven't been able to figure out whom. I'm just now starting to meet the people around Tony. It has to be someone close though, because Tony only has close friends and he's always cautious about everyone else. I don't think it would be easy for a stranger or rival to fool Tony. I'm going to have to ask Tony some questions but he won't talk to the government, so it may be hard to get him to talk to me."

"No it won't," Percy said. Everyone glanced at him and his cheeks became a little pink as he explained what he meant, "You're someone that's really easy to talk to. It won't be hard for him to talk to you, because you don't judge people and you can usually relate. Or…at least that's how it is when I talk to you."

Luke saved Percy from the curious looks by swinging his arm around the younger boy and saying, "Percy's totally right, Bro. You're pretty easy to talk to, so you'll have no problem."

"Thanks," Neo smiled back at them.

They quickly made dinner after everyone had taken a shower. Thankfully Remus didn't have to give the "dog" a shower, because Sirius was able to change back into his human form and they both left the bathroom when they were done. Dinner was good, and Tony came up to join them when Neo threatened to carry him up the stairs again. The billionaire didn't complain though, the food was good and he enjoyed the company in his house.

The next day, everyone had stuck to the same schedule as the first. Neo was able to convince Tony to come with them to the beach for an hour after breakfast, but then the genius returned to his workshop until dinner. Pepper came by that evening. She only came to see how Tony was doing, but when she saw everyone she tried to through them out thinking Tony was having a party that he shouldn't be having while he recuperated. Neo quickly explained everything to the irate secretary and took a minute to sit and talk to her while she watched the fallout from the press conference of TV. When Pepper received a call from Tony asking for help Neo walked with her down to the workshop. They entered and Tony asked Pepper to replace the device in his chest.

Neo watched as the woman left then turned to Tony, "She doesn't realize how much you trust her, does she?"

Tony just shrugged as he got off of the table, "I keep thinking "one of these days" she'll figure it out, but no, not yet."

"I know how hard it can be to trust people sometimes. She's lucky you chose her, even if she can't tell how you really feel about her," Neo said patting Dummy on the head when he wheeled up.

"Pepper doesn't want to be with someone like me."

"Well, she just hasn't realized that you're not that person anymore. It's just a matter of her seeing the man you've become. She does care about you, but it's up to her to figure out how much," Neo explained. "Remember Tony, this is your turning point. You've change and you can feel it. From now on, the only one who can make decisions in your life is you. It's not about your parents, it's not about what other people expect from you, it's about what you expect from yourself. What kind of man do you want to be? It doesn't matter who the public wants, or the kind of man Pepper would want. You're capable of great things all on your own and if everyone else can't see that then it's there lose. Why do you fight? What drove you to come back? Why did you decide to stop making weapons? Every day I see you figure out the answers to those questions little by little, and the man I see you becoming is stronger than everyone wants him to be because they want to keep manipulating you. He's surer of himself and doesn't need others to tell him what to do. And when you find that man inside of you, you'll realize he has a heart of iron that loves strongly and can weather anything."

"Some people wouldn't put that much confidence in me," the other man said morosely.

"And I say you don't give yourself enough credit," Neo looked straight into Tony's eyes and watched the genius' reaction to his next words, "It's time to stop listening to other people who care more about themselves or the interests of others, than what's best for you. The only people, whose opinions truly matter, are the people you chose to listen to. So who do you chose, the people who you call friends or the people who think they know you without ever meeting the real you?"

"You make it sound so easy and in hindsight I guess it is, but what I chose isn't going to make a difference. There are still people out there that will say and do whatever they want with my name. I can't just stop the presses and expect everyone to stop talking about me. Once you're this famous, everyone wants a piece of you."

"What you want will always matter more! No one has a right to use you, and you can stop them." Neo said vehemently. "Jarvis!" he barked looking at the computers to his right.

"Yes, sir?" The A.I.'s usual greeting seemed a little more curious than normal.

"I've heard of the American laws that protect freedom of speech, but I also know that there are laws protecting celebrates and public icons from slander. I would like you to search all of the media feeds circulating the internet and television. Search for any information that has been falsified, or released into the public without proper consent. I know that a company like Stark Industries has a P.R. group and many Lawyers kept on retainer. I want everything you find sent to those Lawyers, and notify them that action should be taken immediately. The rampant lies that are being spread about Tony Stark and his company will be stopped. And every media news reporter who has been printing false information will be sued for libel. Be sure to inform everyone whose job it is to monitor S. I.'s public relations, and its team of Lawyers, that the lack of action so far will no longer be tolerated.

Oh and on a final note, please be sure to inform all staff that since the previous share holders are no longer in charge of the Board, the company will be undergoing a revision process by Mr. Stark and his current share holders. Inform them that every division of Stark Industries will be looked into thoroughly and the company will be looking into every employee's performance, those who are not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner will be let go before the beginning of next year. The company is heading in a new direction, and its employees should be prepared for that change. Anyone who is not doing their job or has a problem with the changes that are made will be asked to leave."

"I'm pretty sure you can't do that," Tony shot back with a smile; he was finding this situation amusing and a little touching.

"Recently I have become a share holder in a certain company, and I have an interest in the way that company is being run and its image that is being portrayed in the media. As C.E.O. of that company, isn't it your job to make me happy?" Neo said with a teasing smirk.

Tony laughed, "Weren't you just saying that I shouldn't let people boss me around?"

Neo just shrugged, "I'm not doing this for me."

Tony paused for a moment and just looked at the young man in front of him, into those eyes that still haunted his dreams. A stranger, who he had met only two days ago, was showing more concern for his wellbeing than people he had known for years, "Do what he says Jarvis."

Jarvis replied quickly, "I have already started, sir. Estimated time of completion is ten hours. It will take most of that time to filter through both the internet and television. Stark Industries P.R. group and lawyers have already been contacted and I have begun to send copies of my results to them. An all staff email on upcoming performance reviews and changes has been sent out."

"Ten hours, are you running slow there, Jarvis?"

"No sir, I was merely calculating for human error and estimated work time," Jarvis sounded a little arrogant but you can't blame an A.I., who is used to working with a genius, for thinking other humans are slow.

"Well we can't expect everyone to be as awesome as me, right?" Tony laughed and winked at Neo.

The god turned around but stopped before he headed up the stairs. Neo had realized that Tony wasn't following him. When the billionaire reached for a tool he pulled back his hand with a stinging read mark on the back. Neo stood next to Tony with a stern look on his face.

"The only instrument that you will be picking up for now is the utensil you will need to eat with. It's time for dinner."

"Yes, mom," Tony joked.

Neo shoved his hands into his pockets and that was when he found something he had forgotten about. He pulled out the little figure of the metal suit that he had made in the desert. Neo decided he would sit it on Tony's desk as a surprise for him to find later. Unfortunately Neo would never realize what a mistake that was.

Dinner was very good, thanks to the skills of Elric and Neo who refused to let the butler cook that much food by himself. Neo had caught Elric giving him a curious look every once and awhile but the young god decided not to mention it. Since they first met Neo had gotten along with Elric. The servants posh butler routine was interesting because Neo was convinced that Elric had been working as a servant long enough for it to be natural. That didn't mean that the Spirit had no sense of humor or fun. Elric had accidently, or not, gotten some of the gravy for dinner on Neo's nose so the younger retaliated by flicking the spoon he was using to stir the cake batter at Elric getting chocolate cake mix on his apron. It was a small food fight that Elric won as he held Neo to his chest and grabbed the spoon from him before he used it to cover Neo's cheeks. They smiled at each other, but before they got back to work Elric used his ungloved hand to swipe some of the batter off of Neo's face and then licked his finger clean. The young god went bright red as he looked back at what he was doing.

Everything was fine that evening until Obadiah came to talk to Tony. The bald man still made Neo's figurative hackles rise, and given the way the others watched Tony's old friend Neo wasn't the only one getting bad vibes. Obadiah thankfully didn't stay, but through their relief of having the man gone, no one noticed that he had walked out with something that wasn't his.

***Break***

Obadiah had been growing more and more furious lately. First, the assassination he had planned had gone wrong thanks to a bunch of terrorists who thought they could extort money from him. That problem had already been settled though. The Ten Rings had been eliminated thanks to a massive explosion that had killed everyone in their camp, which included all of the heads of the organization who were there to meet that day, so no one would know of his involvement in the kidnapping. Second, Tony comes back to the United States and stops production of Stark weapons which is the cash cow of Stark Industries. Third, some unknown party buys up every piece of S. I. stock that was not being held by Tony or Obadiah himself.

Of course, Obadiah had known that a bunch of ignorant extremists were no match for Tony's genius. That's why he had told them to kill the inventor. Then Tony mustered more resolve than Obadiah ever gave him credit for and managed to escape. Obadiah was curious how the boy had escaped. It seemed that Tony was still useful because whatever he had invented to get him out of the terrorist's camp might be very profitable when it was perfected. Obadiah had spent a lot of money to send people out in the desert and search for anything that would have helped Tony escape, because Tony hadn't brought anything back with him. The worst part was Tony must have had some forethought because the cave that he was working in had been set on fire and blown up. It wasn't clear if it was an accident or intentional but nothing had been found and Obadiah figured he would never find out, or he would have to wait for Tony to unveil his latest creation. But then he found something interesting just sitting on Tony's bench. It was made out of glass which was odd because the billionaire never kept ornaments on his desk. When the older man looked closer, he saw a scaled down model of a suit of armor, but this one was less medieval and had Tony's craftsmanship all over it. The flamethrower mounted on the arm was the most interesting piece. Obadiah had been in the business long enough to spot a weapon and this one was coming out of the arm of this little figure. Out of curiosity mostly, the old man had taken the object.

Returning to his research facility, Obadiah had told the researchers to analyze the figure, and he soon found out that it was his greatest discovery. The head researcher scanned the glass and found that it was surprisingly detailed and they could speculate the engineering necessary to create this model then enlarge it to make it a high-tech armored suit. Now Obadiah had the means to create his own weaponized metal suit and soon he wouldn't need Tony any more.

After Tony was out of the picture Obadiah would have to take care of that annoying pest who thought they could buy out the rest of the share holders. His plans to remove that particular annoyance where moved up from eventually, to soon, when he received an email. It stated that Tony and the current share holders would be evaluating the company in preparation to make changes, in order to shift focus and insure Stark Industries was no longer a weapons manufacturer. The fact that he had not been consulted on this did not escape Obadiah's notice. It seemed that Tony was starting to take initiative in the company, but he was making the mistake of not consulting him. This was something Obadiah would be sure to rectify in the near future. One good thing came out of this, he didn't have to listen to the Board members at the upcoming meeting but he still couldn't get into contact with the new member.

***Break***

Tony had requested that he be allowed to spend the day in his workshop after he got back from a visit to his friend in the Air Force. Neo had agreed that he should be allowed some time to himself and promised he would only show up when it was time to eat. The genius billionaire had moved from the design stages to fabrication, first the electronics and wiring, then systems checks and modifications. Tony spent all morning tinkering with the power relays and was moving on to the flight tests. That was when Neo walked in and almost had a heart attack. Tony had started up the repulsers but they had too much lift and he went flying toward the concrete ceiling. Thankfully Neo's godly reflexes gave him enough time for his magic to reach out and cushion the concrete and slow Tony's momentum to keep him from bashing his skull in. The air between the man and ceiling had also become denser protecting Tony.

Neo breathed a sigh when his new friend sat up. He rolled his eyes and sat the salad wraps and coffee he had brought on a work bench.

"Well that certainly was impressive. Tell me, are you inventing new ways of committing suicide? I have to admit it is different from making weapons but not by much," Neo said.

"No, I'm trying to make something that can save lives. So I would appreciate it if you sounded a little less sarcastic at this point in time," Tony said rubbing his chest. The impact may have been lessened but it had still hurt. "I'm just working out the kinks."

"Hmm, what is it with genius' and needing adult supervision," Neo mumbled as he remembered the times Hermione had done some very brilliant but extremely dangerous things. "And I would appreciate not being afraid that my new friend was going to die in a work related accident. That was incredibly dangerous. I'd feel more comfortable if you had someone else watching your back." Neo pointed out the small robot holding a slightly less than full fire extinguisher.

Tony gave a charming smile, "You don't have to make up reasons to hang out with me. I know I'm irresistible, just ask everyone who's gotten to spend "quality time" with me before."

"Yes I'm sure they would have loads to say on the subject, but was it really quality time? I think you would have to know someone pretty well to have any quality involved in the time you spend together. It's not what you do that makes being together special, it's who you're with. Don't sell yourself short Tony, because you are worth getting to know," Neo's eyes took on a faraway look as he thought about the few short relationships that had mattered, and how that blossoming love was taken away by the useless ideals of others. What say did other people have in his choice of who he loved? What right does anyone have to say that two people should not, or could not, love each other? The ignorance of people, who believe they can make decisions for others because they "think" they have a right to project their ideas onto another, will never cease to anger him.

Neo cleared his throat, "Sorry, I got side tracked. I brought you some lunch."

"Oh, aren't you sweet but I didn't get you anything."

The smile that they shared was comfortable.

Suddenly a thought, more like a gut feeling, popped into Tony's head, "Listen, I have something I need to tell you. Do you have a minute?"

Neo was surprised but nodded, "Sure, what is it?"

"I don't know why I'm telling you this, I just get this feeling that you'll understand. I don't know how you figured out what you already did, but I want you to know you're right. I'm not the same guy I was two weeks ago, and it's a big change. And every time I talk to you, you remind me of someone I met. He told me not to waste my life. Lately I've been sitting and thinking about those words and I'm not really sure that he was talking to the right person. He said I was getting a second chance at changing my legacy, "The last act of defiance from the great Tony Stark". I want to make sure that the Zero Accountability of this system changes, but I don't know where to start when I think about fixing the things I've done. Then you say something that completely changes my view and I feel more confident, like I'm one step closer to becoming this great man that he wanted me to be and the man that you see in me. When I get that feeling, the only thing that worries me is that I'll wind up doing something stupid like I usually do and then you'll just be disappointed in me like everyone else. I, uh-hum…" Tony had to stop talking for a moment.

Neo just stepped closer and wrapped the other man in a hug. Speaking quietly into Tony's ear Neo said, "You'll never disappoint me Tony. I know it sounds ridiculous but you won't. I only expect you to be you. Whatever you do, whoever you become, I know that you will always be Tony Stark and you will do what you think it right. Even if we choose different sides one day and have to call each other "enemy", I will know that you chose the side you believed is right and you will do what you're heart tells you to do. That doesn't mean I won't try to beat some sense into that thick skull of yours when that time comes," they both chuckled, "but you won't disappoint me, not as long as you make your own decisions and don't act like a puppet. As long as you are in charge of your own actions I will respect your choices. You could shoot me in the heart, and I still wouldn't be disappointed. I might feel betrayed but not disappointed. Because everything you just said reassures me that I know the man inside of you, and he is a great man."

"But how do I become that man?" Tony asked as he leaned into the supportive embrace.

"You just have to remember what you told me. You're building things to save lives. Saving lives means you stand up for and defend the weak, you stop everyone who would harm the innocent and do evil, and you stand by those who would stand by you," Neo loosened his grip and leaned back to look into Tony's eyes, "I know you can do that…I will always believe in you." After a second Neo decided to change the subject, "Now I've decided to help you or at least make sure you don't kill yourself. So what's next, and how can I help?"

They spent the next week working on Tony's new invention and quickly became best friends as they worked together. Neo marveled at Tony's genius and loved when the man explained things to him. He loved working with his hands and getting a crash course on engineering. And Tony was fascinated that the younger man was absorbing the information like a sponge even though he claimed he would never be as smart as Tony. Another thing Tony came to admire about the young man was how he actually enjoyed listening to Tony talk. When Tony was younger people were intimidated by how intelligent he was at such a young age, and now people are more interested in how much money he has than how smart he is. With Neo it was easier to talk to him because he didn't just sit around and watch he would try to help, but he never tried to tell Tony what he should do. And sometimes he would offer advice that was very useful, like when Neo suggested they move Tony's cars after he noticed that it would be bad to leave them so close to the testing area, something Tony had overlooked. Later when Tony's flight test would have brought him down on one of his favorite cars he decided to repay Neo by getting him one, just as soon as he found out the others favorite color. After all what is a gift without a few personal touches?

The night after the first test flight, Tony wanted to transfer Jarvis to the internal systems in the suit, so Neo sat in the living room reading. Neo had taken time to keep up with his training, and everyone had been using a warded training area on Tony's property. Of course training wasn't the only thing he was keeping up with. Neo had been reading some of the books Hecate had given him. But he wasn't just reading them; Neo was trying to find something that would explain the changes that had been occurring lately. The first thing he noticed was that his hair was growing long, dark brown almost black locks had grown out and where touching his shoulders. The second thing that made a significant difference was his height, he was only a little taller but it was noticeable. Then he started seeing the rapid growth that he was going through in his training. His magic had grown in leaps and bounds, his speed was incredible both on the ground and in the sky, and he was stronger than he ever dreamed of and it was easier to spar with Jormungandr.

As he walked into the room, Loki saw his young nephew studiously reading a magic book and his curiosity drove him to ask a question, "What troubles you this night? Or I believe the saying goes, "penny for your thoughts" but that makes it sound so cheap."

"I just feel like I'm growing too fast, is it normal for a god to age?" Neo wondered aloud.

"I told you before, gods age like humans at first but once they reach their prime they age much slower and years seem like days. Though that is usually the truth, in your case I admit that I'm not quite sure what is happening. I have noticed a change lately, and I believe it is due to the power you hold and the circumstances of your birth. Your power is still growing and quickly. Also remember that after the ritual to create your body Hecate cast a spell to age you so you would be strong enough to inherit your true power. It appears to be an effect of the spell, which leads me to believe that your body is trying to reach it's pentacle of perfection so it does not cause a strain on you as your powers grow. After I first saw the change I noticed that it is gradual and natural, I am sure that it will stop once you have fully developed into a body that is perfect and capable of containing your power. Most Asgardians and Olympians reach their prime when they reach the appearance of a mid-twenty to thirty year old. So it shouldn't take much longer now." Loki gave his shoulder a brief squeeze, "You will be a full-fledged god in no time."

"I'm not so sure that it is the spell that is still affecting me. I can feel the power that is flowing through me better than I ever did before, and I'm sure that there is no other magic but mine. Something is telling me that this is different somehow and it's not magic," Neo said hoping Loki would understand his confusion.

"Then perhaps it is something greater than magic?"

"But what is greater than magic?" Neo asked incredulously.

"Fate. It is one of the most powerful forces in the Universe, and it moves us all. Fate is the great Balance, because it decides when things must come to pass. That is not to say that we have no say in our fate. On the contrary, we are masters of our own fates and, for good or bad, we are allowed to make our own choices, choices that we will have to live with. Fate is simply the series of events that happen in life, those that must come to pass and those that can be changed if we act at the right time. Nothing is set in stone until it has happened, and sometimes it can still be changed," Loki sat back and quietly thought about his next words, "Perhaps it is Fate pushing you in the right direction, giving you the strength to make the best choices, and gifting you with what you will need to overcome the obstacles in your path. Perhaps…Life and Death were not the only ones who decided to grant you the power to change things in this Universe. Maybe Fate has chosen you as its Champion as well. And if that is the case, I wish you luck because you are going to need it," Loki smiled sympathetically, "And if Fate has chosen you, you can be sure that everything that has happened so far is only the tip of the iceberg" he finished ominously.

With his last comment putting Neo slightly on edge the older god left the room in silence. Neo huffed and slumped forward resting his head in his hands, "Why is it that almost every time I ask for answers I just find myself with more questions than I had before?" he muttered quietly.

A prickle at the edge of his senses alerted Neo to someone else in the room. He heard a noise close and in front of him, so he quickly moved his hands and looked ahead. Kneeling on the floor at his feet was Elric.

The Spirit raised his right hand and placed it over his heart as he made a solemn pledge, "I am your servant, and yours to command. I am and will always be your Guardian, and will stand by you forever, until my end. I pledge my body and soul to your service. I am your instrument, and through me your will shall be done. I vow to serve you with the utmost valor, to remain loyal to you always, to keep faith in you, and to never lie to you. I will fight for you and the welfare of all whom you hold dear. My honor and glory are yours. I promise to persevere to the end in anything and everything that you command of me. I will uphold all of the virtues and ideals you hold sacred. This I vow."

Neo was shocked and would have said something about his words being unnecessary, but something inside of him was telling him that what Elric had just said was more than a simple statement. "I accept your vow," and the words had barely left his mouth, when suddenly a strong energy started to gather in the room. It was shorting out the lamp that Neo had been using to read, and it cast strange shadows as it flashed on and off. The energy slowly manifested a circle around the two, and form in the air as a brilliant sunny glow. Neo's Sight activated with a simple thought, but as his vision changed Neo grew confused because he wasn't looking at a force of magic, it was something else.

As Elric made the pledge his spirit, which was the energy Neo felt, had expanded and was now engraved with the words of his vow. Not only did his spirit take on the vow but everything that Elric silently included, which gave deeper meaning to his words. The power of Elric's vow weaved unbreakable chains that bound his soul to his promises. Golden chains that seemed to be formed out of light came from his chest (the core of Elric's soul) and a collar that had formed around the Guardian's throat, both chains connected together into one. The end of the chain hovered in front of the young god.

Neo didn't understand what was supposed to happen next so he looked at the words of power and saw that they formed a contract. Then, it was like he instinctively knew what was happening. Death had said that Elric was a Guardian spirit who had fought with living partners who gave him the power to manifest on the mortal plan by sharing their energy. She said that Elric didn't need that bond to become caporal anymore. So the Guardian Spirit was willingly binding himself to Neo, and he had used the word forever.

"Forever is a long time," Neo said and then swallowed thickly as he looked into the golden eyes, the very soul, of his Guardian. "Are you sure?"

"I am," Elric stated simply.

Neo hesitated for a moment before he reached out and gently grasped the gold chain. It wound around his hand and at that instant Neo could feel a link between Elric and himself. With the vow made and accepted the light died down, and then Elric's soul retreated back into his form.

Neo looked down at his hand and noticed that if he tried hard enough he could still see the bond but his eyes grew strained trying to maintain the power he had tapped into, 'It must be the Soul Gaze Death told me about.' He pushed the power back down and his sight returned to normal. That's when all of the thoughts that had been held at bay by his shock suddenly sprung to mind, he had questions and he knew who was going to answer them.

Neo looked Elric in the eyes and his brow furrowed in confusion, "Why me? Why so suddenly?"

Elric took Neo's hand gently into his and raised it to his soft lips and pressed a feather light kiss to the god's knuckles to show his subservience before he spoke, "My Master, I have been a Guardian far longer than anything else in my long existence and it is all I know now. I have had many Masters and I have out lived them all. For some time now I have had a desire, and even as I told myself that it would always be a dream, I have longed to have a Master who would not leave me behind. I came to wish that such a Master would be the greatest of them all, someone I could give my loyalty to and never regret it. I have had both good and terrible Masters, but in the short time that I have known you I realized that I never had one as great as you. As a god you will live a long time, and even if you were to die, gods will always be reborn. But you are no mere god, you are the Master of Death, and like Death you are an eternal being. After the end of my Universe I thought that it was my duty to pledge myself to the service of Death, but she told me to wait and my true master would come. I heard what your Uncle said. Things will not be easy, but I will always stand by you. I felt that now was the right time to form a contract because I know now that you are the Master I seek. My choices lead me to my fate as a Guardian, but Fate itself was merciful enough to grant me this chance. It is my destiny to be by your side, and I am doubly blessed because you are not just my Master but my True Master. My dream came true. In all of the Universes across time and space, this is the only one where you exist as a god and the Master of Death. And my wish came true when I found out not only are you a being of great power but you are a great man." Elric's eyes had gone misty as his happiness started to become too much to hold in any longer.

Neo didn't say a word as he pulled his hand away from the Spirit. A flash of pain crossed the Spirit's face as he began to think that he had been rejected, but Elric's emotions where soothed as the young god reached out and pulled the Spirit to his feet to get a better look at his eyes. Neo spoke, "You didn't have to promise all of that. I would have been happy with just having you as my friend. But I understand that this is who you are, so if it makes you more comfortable you can keep doing what you do, I just want you to try acting a little less like my servant. I don't want you to feel strange though, so baby steps. Like talking to me more, and don't stand in the background so much, okay? Oh, and in this day and age people don't believe in servants so you might want to call me something besides master, but that's just a suggestion. It will take some time to adjust but I'm sure it won't be hard."

Elric understood and he was very happy, "I will try. Please excuse me, M…Sir," the way Elric had said "sir", left Neo wondering how long it would take the Spirit to become less awkward in addressing him as something other than "Master".

"See you later," he said but the other man was already gone. Neo chuckled as a grin spread across his face. But he almost choked a second later, because THAT was when he remembered that he was in a house where the walls literally had eyes, ears and could talk. 'Isn't that a triple threat?'

Neo looked up to the camera mounted on the wall, "Jarvis? Is there any chance that you happened to miss all of that?"

"No, my camera and microphone have been functioning correctly all day, but since I cannot understand or explain what happened, I am willing to allow you the chance to do so before I feel the need to inform Mr. Stark." The A.I.'s voice sounded stern and Neo could tell that Jarvis would do exactly as he said if he didn't start talking.

It was still taking time for Neo to understand it so he just said the first thing that came to mind, "I don't really know how to explain magic to a computer, even one as smart as you."

"I was able to gather that you, your Uncle, and Mr. Graves believe in the illogical idea of magic. However that fact does not explain the energy fluctuation in the room or the electric field that suddenly formed. Could you please explain that?"

"If I tell you I will be putting my life and the lives of my family in danger. If you will agree to delete the video and audio from before Loki came in to until I am done explaining I will tell you. Deal?" Neo thought it was silly making a deal with a computer, but Jarvis has always acted more like a human and Neo trusted him.

"If I am certain that the information poses no threat to Mr. Stark I will do what you ask," the computer agreed and Neo breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he explained the fact that a world full of fantastic creatures and people who were able to manipulate the energy around them existed right there on Earth and no one knew about it. Jarvis took the time to validate this by searching out any anomalies in Geography and public records in places that where heavily populated by the wizards and he was able to see the strange peculiarities. When Neo started to talk about the fact that he was a god the A.I. demanded a blood test, but Neo said he could prove it with a less invasive test and told the A.I. to scan his muscle and bone density. Jarvis had to reluctantly agree that Neo was not completely human, and because Neo had told him the truth (as Jarvis was carefully monitoring Neo using programs designed to detect lies) Jarvis deleted the footage and blamed it on Neo for shorting out the circuit in the room. Later when asked about the missing video file, Jarvis would tell Tony that he had fixed the problem with Neo's help but couldn't recover the footage.

With that finally over Neo started to wonder what Tony was still doing in his lab. He seriously had to have a talk with a certain genius about the fact a human being cannot function none stop, or he could just glare at Tony and drag the man out of the lab every once and awhile. Neo was sure that the genius was smart enough to interpret the meaning behind that.

Neo reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Tony in the workshop. He quickly became worried as he saw the fierce look in Tony's eyes. It was usually a good thing for a person to take action when they came across a challenge, but when it comes to Tony it could turn out horrible.

Tony spotted Neo out of the corner of his eye, and the idea that had been forming since he saw the news suddenly developed a little more. The billionaire flashed Neo a grin which put the young god on alert.

"Whatever it is, if it involves danger you need to tell me now, so I can be ready before we leave," Neo said quickly.

Tony blinked as his eyebrows made a valiant effort to jump into his hairline, "Wow, I actually wasn't expecting you to agree, at least not until I wore you down with my amazing persuasion skills. You just went up a notch on the "Tony Stark Scale of Cool", which means right now you and Pepper are tied, but that's because Pep will always be number one."

Neo laughed, "Okay, seriously, what's going on?"

"How do you feel about suits, dancing, drinking and possibly having people stare at you because you're my date?" The words rushed out of Tony's mouth.

Even though he was sure he heard Tony correctly Neo still had to ask, "What?!"

"You're so eloquent," Tony teased making Neo roll his eyes, "Apparently I'm throwing a party and wasn't invited. So how do you feel about accompanying me to my third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund at the Disney Concert Hall?"

Neo thought about it then shrugged his shoulders, "Why not? But I'm not going as your date. If Pepper doesn't get mad, she will laugh herself to death after the news blows-up with scandalous articles about your PTSD turning you gay, or some bollocks idea of the like."

"Alright, but don't come to me when you realize that you're passing up the chance of a lifetime," Tony quipped.

"I'm sure I will find some way to live with it." They both laughed, "Just give me ten minutes and I'll be ready. You said suit, right?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you at the door in ten minutes."

Thanks to his magic, which he didn't have to keep secret from Jarvis anymore, Neo was ready in less than five minutes. He mentioned that he was going out and everyone decided to come along. When he realized that it would be a full car he told Jarvis to call for the limo.

Tony and everyone else stood at the door dressed in their best when Neo arrived. Tony was handsome and looked as comfortable in his suite as he did in his grease covered shirts. Loki seemed to be the most elegantly dressed with his green silk tie and designer clothes. Remus looked like an upper class British citizen. Even though his shirt was not fully buttoned it gave him a ruggedly handsome look, and the bronze tie he loosely wore brought out the color of his amber eyes. Fenrir looked similar to Remus, but he had gone without a tie. Jormungandr looked good in a white vest over an ice blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and white dress pants. Percy and Luke went with the traditional black and white clothes, but they had styled their hair up for the occasion.

The group started to leave as soon as they saw Neo, knowing that he would catch up.

"Hey, man," Percy said as Neo came closer to him, at exactly ten minutes after he had talked to Tony. The Son of Poseidon saw Neo in his emerald green shirt that made his eyes seem brighter with a black silk tie handing from his neck and black pants. But the new god was wearing his usual leather jacket and everyone, besides Tony, knew he was ready for anything just like he always was.

Neo looked at the fidgeting demigod, "Hey. You know, I think you looked more comfortable the first time we played capture the flag than you do right now. You need to relax, Percy. It's not like some monster is going to suddenly show-up and chew your face off." Neo couldn't help but grin evilly as the younger boy paled. He pat Percy on the shoulder as everyone started to head toward the car, "Look, even if some big bad does show up, you have my family and I looking out for you."

Percy was able to breathe again, and he bumped shoulders with Neo as he walked next to him. "Thanks, I've just never done anything like this before. People don't really invite the dyslexic kid with ADHD to some up-scale party, so I really never got the chance to wear something like this."

Neo brought Percy closer as he wrapped his arm around the younger boy's shoulders, "Well you look gorgeous, mate! So stop fidgeting, put your chin up, give us a smile and you'll knock'em all dead."

Percy just laughed; he was feeling better by the second. It was like Neo had the ability to make everything easier. Percy felt calmer, surer, and happier every time Neo was around. Neo always managed to say the right thing. He was smart, helpful, polite and strong, but he could also be mischievous and sarcastic. When Percy looked up at the other boy, he noticed Neo smiling at him. Percy's cheeks started to feel warm and his heart suddenly skipped a bet.

Neo was the last to get into the car, but he heard a noise behind him before he started to slide in. He looked and saw Sirius standing there in his dog form whining pitifully. The wizard's "puppy eyes" where cranked-up to ten and his tail was drooping, but Neo could see that his fur was just cleaned. Neo shook his head at the display, "Come on, Padfoot, no one's going to make you stay here."

The dog happily jumped in and Neo got in after, then leaned over and closed the door. Inside the limo there was a fun atmosphere created by the excitement of Fenrir and Percy, which was tempered by the sarcasm and calmness of everyone else in the car.

They quickly arrived at the fundraiser, but it seemed that Tony was completely unexpected. The billionaire quickly walked past the guests lingering outside, and even brushed off Obadiah. As they walked inside the group broke up, but Neo and Percy stayed close to Tony.

Agent Coulson was a familiar face and Neo thought it was funny how the poor man was more easily brushed off by Tony than Pepper.

Neo decided to speak up, "You know he was ignoring you right?" His statement made the older man turn to him. "Your name is Coulson, right? You were talking to Pepper the other day."

"You know me but I don't think I ever got your name…" Coulson questioned in return.

"My name is Neo Thorson, and this is my friend Percy Jackson."

"Phil Coulson," they shook hands as they introduced themselves. "Pardon me asking, but aren't you two a little young for this kind of party."

"Easy Phil, with questions like that you sound like a concerned parent," Neo joked. "Besides, we're not here for the free drinks; we just decided to tag along. I met Tony while I was in town for business and he was nice enough to let me stay with him for awhile. America's great and the private beach that Tony has is brilliant. So when he chose to show up at the last minute we all decided to join him," Neo looked closer at the Agent's face, "Hm, why do you look so surprised?"

Surprised was an understatement, Agent Coulson was doing his version of a freak out. No one had reported that Tony had visitors and the man has been under surveillance since he returned to the States. He would have the agent responsible fired immediately, this kind of error was unacceptable.

Of course, it wasn't really the agents fault. The wards that Neo had set up around the property before he had even passed the gate made sure that outsiders never saw any magic being performed. This also meant that anyone on the property who had magic wasn't visible or audible from outside. It was also the anti-spying magic that stopped the microphones they tried to plant from working, thought the techs at S.H.I.E.L.D. had said it was due to Tony's high-tech equipment messing with the frequency.

Thanks to Neo's ADHD and paranoia he had noticed the people following Tony since they started tailing the billionaire's vehicle after the press conference, and it was a relief to finally find out who it was, "Well I hope you have a good night, Phil. I have a feeling I'll be seeing you around."

Neo and Percy walked away, and it looked like they had chosen the best time. Four guests were moving across the floor toward Tony, and the look on their faces said they weren't looking to have a polite conversation with the inventor. Neo quickened his pace and reached Tony at the same time as one of the men he saw. The man reached out for Tony and grabbed his shoulder. As Tony started to turn toward him, the man aimed a left hook to the genius' face. Neo caught it in time and pushed the man away from Tony then placed himself between his new friend and his aggressors.

"Get out of my way!" the guest yelled. His loud exclamation caused the guests around them to back away.

"Sir, you and your friends should leave before you get yourselves into trouble," Neo told him. "Because you'll have to go through me to get to Mr. Stark."

"Do you know who I am? You can't stop me; this is between me and Stark." The man looked around Neo to see Tony, "You have the balls to show your face here Stark! I have been a board member of Stark Enterprises for 30 years, and suddenly you decide that a Weapons Company is just supposed to stop making weapons? Then some upstart comes along and talks my guy into selling all of my shares in the company. I don't know how you did it, but I'm sure that this is all some cockamamie scheme you thought up, did they cut of your balls while you were in the desert, or are you finally showing everyone just how pathetic you really are?"

Neo didn't think twice, he stepped closer, "One more word, and I'll have you arrested, here and now."

The man obviously thought Neo wouldn't be a problem and tried to push him out of the way. As soon as he felt a hand grab his shoulder Neo moved, he flipped the man onto his back in the blink of an eye. The air rushed out of the other mans lungs when he hit the floor and at the same time the whole room held its breath.

"Listen Myers, I own Stark Enterprises so the company is what I say it is. And it's not my fault if you jumped ship like a rat, that's your problem. Frankly I don't care what you decided to do, because the truth is that Stark Enterprises doesn't need people like you. And I'm personally going to work on cleaning out the trash, soon." Tony's words where said in his usual calm and superior tone.

One of the men who showed up with Myers decided that it was his turn to add his pointless two cents. "Shut up, Stark! You never cared about the company before. I guarantee this is just some self-righteous faze, and when you realized that you don't want to take the responsibility of running your own company you'll dump it on someone else."

"I think that's quite enough, gentleman," Loki said from the left of the two standing men.

"Yeah, nobody likes a buzz kill." Luke called from the opposite side. He gave his dangerously charming smile and the temperature in the room seemed to drop.

"I agree, you should leave." The voice of Jormungandr came from behind the two men.

When they turned around Jormungandr stood with his younger brother who commented also, "You three should get lost. If you run now, you might make it out of here undamaged, but your egos won't be so lucky," Fenrir let out a small laugh.

A growl came from beside Neo as Remus and Sirius walked up, the latter with his hackles raised. "I believe my friends are right, please leave," The shape-shifter said.

Sirius was enough to finally get through to the men that it was not going to end well if they didn't leave, now.

"It looks like you got some new bodyguards Stark," the last man said, "but will they be able to protect you when worse people show up? Do you think your new muscle will be able to stop all of the people gunning for you? You have too many enemies for that Stark. Maybe you should have thought about who you're real friends are, before you made so many enemies." The man's comment didn't go unnoticed by the gods in the room. "Come on Mastovich, give me a hand," the speaker gestured to the downed man, and the two standing men helped their friend off of the floor before they left.

When the three men were gone Tony spoke to the men he had gotten to know recently, and who continually surprised him. "You didn't have to do that guys, I can take a hit when it comes to dealing with my problems."

Loki just gave Tony a look that said "you are an imbecile", before he finally said, "Are you saying that you don't appreciate our help? That's not very grateful of you." Then Loki smirked, which showed that he was joking as he added, "Or maybe you're just more trouble than you're worth."

Pepper who Tony had been talking to laughed, "You have no idea," she joked and just like that the party seemed to continue.

Every one of the guests went back to having a good time and the group separated again. This time Neo was left on the dance floor with Agent Coulson. Phil had moved to help Tony but when he saw that he didn't need to he just observed. It was a surprise to him that the group of men seemed to be closer to Stark than he thought.

Neo turned to see Coulson still there. The new god just raised one eyebrow. Phil just smiled and walked back to the buffet table. Neo rolled his eyes as a smile spread across his face. It didn't take long before Neo and the others saw Tony heading for the door. They all left quickly after the genius and got in behind Tony when Happy pulled the limo up to the curb. They may not have been there long but it was still good to get out of the house.

***Inside-with Coulson***

Phil had been assigned to Stark ever since he was kidnapped, and he was almost ready to kidnap the man himself. It was obviously the only way someone could get Tony Stark's attention and he would be recommending it to Fury as a first option. He knew that Neo, one of the guests Stark had brought with him was right; Stark hadn't listened to a word Phil had said. Phil was the agent sent to debrief Tony, but as he watched Tony leave the Fundraiser he decided to call it a night. Phil was walking to the door when he bumped into a beautiful blonde who had been walking in the opposite direction.

"I'm so sorry Mrs..." he apologized.

"Miss Vanguard, actually," the woman said politely, "And I'm sure you didn't mean it," the woman's black eyes shone in the light as a small blush blossomed on her smiling face.

"Phil Coulson, please excuse me," Phil said as he turned to leave.

"Oh! You're leaving already?" she asked disappointingly.

"Yes, I had a little business to take care of but it looks like I missed my chance."

"I see, it seems your evening isn't going very well and I'm sorry to hear that, but," the woman bit her lip in hesitation as her blush darkened, "Perhaps you wouldn't mind dancing with me before you go? Of course if you would rather not, I'll understand."

Phil would have normally refused, but Tony already had an agent tailing him meaning Phil would have just headed back to his hotel anyway. So instead of his normal refusal he said, "It would be my pleasure, Ms. Vanguard."

They carried on a polite conversation while dancing and three songs later Phil had taken his dance partner over to the refreshment table.

"Thank you for such a lovely dance, Phil." the blonde said as she kissed Phil on the cheek. "It is good to know men like you still exist."

"And what kind of man would I be?" he asked with a smile. Phil realized that his mood had changed after he met her and it had put him in good spirits.

"One of the best. You are a man who is kind, honorable and noble. Men like you make the world a better place, and they often die young. But I have a feeling you will be around for awhile," she gave a secretive look and pat him on the arm.

Phil thought he heard her murmur something that sounded like, "Especially if I have anything to say about it", but he dismissed it. Even though Phil Coulson was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., he tried to restrain his paranoia. He couldn't let his focus drift into thoughts that would distract him.

She looked up at the clock placed on the wall behind the bar. "Oh goodness, it looks like I should be going. It was lovely meeting you, Phil. I hope you have a good evening." She gave him a beautiful smile as she gracefully left.

Phil glanced at the clock and noticed that he had stayed an extra hour. He quickly left as well. Fortunately if he didn't hit any traffic he would get back to his hotel in time to get at least six hours of sleep.

***Tony's House***

Neo reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Tony in the workshop. He scoffed when he saw the billionaire genius asleep on his workbench. Neo walked over and saw how hunched Tony looked so he chose to move the man up to his bedroom. It was a success until Neo went to carefully drop Tony on the bed and lost his balance as the bed sank under their weight. The younger successfully stopped himself from banging heads with Tony's and possibly giving the sleeping man a concussion. But it seemed that the slip was fortunate because Neo was close enough to hear Tony whisper a name in his sleep.

Neo stood up with a smile, "Good night, Tony," he said. Neo walked back to his room in silence and fell asleep soon after getting in bed.

"Neo," Tony said again as he rolled over in his sleep.

***Next Morning***

The demigods and wizards had gone to bed late but when Loki, Neo and Jormungandr had heard Tony leave in his suit they had stayed awake. This also meant that they were awake to hear Tony come in and watch as Pepper walked through the door a minute later. Neo decided to give them some privacy, soon Colonel Rhodes showed up, almost catching Neo practicing the spells Loki was teaching him. When the last of their family and Percy had woken up, everyone went down to the beach again. They stayed out later than normal and didn't come back until sunset.

It was very unfortunate that they didn't come back sooner. Neo arrived to see Tony leaving in his suit again but something was different. They saw Rhodes leaving and got him to tell them what was wrong.

"Where is the Arc Reactor building?" Remus asked.

"It's next to the main factory. Why?" the dark skinned man asked.

Remus looked at Neo at the same time everyone else seemed to. Neo nodded, "Crowd control is our first priority, and we need to get everyone out of the area as quickly as possible. Colonel, you're going to need to call in reinforcements and tell them to meet you at Starks Arc Reactor building, now. I'll make sure that everyone inside the Reactor building gets out safe."

Neo used a search spell to find Obadiah, and when he did he grabbed a hold of Luke and Percy, "I found them," he said before using his teleporting ability to travel to the Arc Reactor. The three gods and two wizards showed up soon after and they group disillusioned themselves so that no one would remember their faces. Neo headed inside as the others got to work warning people that there was a problem at the factory and it was dangerous. A barrier keeping people and vehicles out of the area, and some mind magic that help convince citizens to leave, had the area cleared out faster than everyone would have thought and covered several blocks.

Neo quickly found Pepper and the Agents in the lowest lab as they watched the Iron Monger suit power up. Agent Coulson was leading Pepper out, while Obadiah had lurched forward to attack the other agents. Neo quickly used his power to pull the agents out of the way, "Get up stairs! Go on," he yelled. The men looked at him, "Now," Obadiah had moved closer to one of the agents ready to crush him, but before he could Neo grabbed the man and shoved him up the stairs and the others followed behind. They met the red head and head agent outside.

It wasn't long after that Tony showed up and a fight between the two metal suits began. Soon after, the magic users dropped a small part of the barrier to let in the tanks when they showed up. The fight was terrible but it was over before anyone knew it.

Everything seemed to blur after that. Neo made sure that everyone involved had made it out safely. The soldiers were mostly fine but some had been injured. Those who had gotten hurt where quickly taken care of and would be fine later.

Neo watched as reporters inched closer to the scene. He glanced at Elric, who had assisted in evacuating the area before the battle, before he said, "Death said that I have some kind of "Guard", right?"

"Yes," the Spirit replied promptly.

"How many do you think it would take for crowd control, and to clean this place up?"

Elric quickly understood what his master was saying, "If you wish, I can call enough of them here to maintain a perimeter and start to clear the area of damaged debris."

"Alright, but I don't just want it cleaned up and thrown away. I want it gone; that means that no one will be able to get their hands on any "souvenirs". You will make sure that everything is accounted for, and then collect all of the research and equipment in the lab. And for the future, because I have a record of getting into trouble, "clean up" will be part of the standard procedure. You will be in charge of making sure that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, but us touches anything that might be dangerous or could be used against us. Here take this," Neo said as he handed Elric a conjured replica of Happy's security badge with the white haired man's picture on it.

"Right away, sir," the Spirit said while accepting the card before he turned and walked away. Neo wondered how he was going to contact Eternia from there, but he never got the answer. Soon after Elric left Neo, black unmarked vehicles showed up. Almost 50 men and women got out of the vehicles and got to work securing the area. The soldiers tried to stop them, but Elric used the badge Neo had given him stating they were Stark Enterprises personal security and damage crew. No one questioned their being there afterward, due to the efficient way they worked. They worked almost too fast to see what they were doing. As they walked around, those that came close to Neo all gave polite bows and a greeting.

The SHIELD agents were curious who the people that had shown up where, because of course they weren't SHIELD agents; most of the women wore maid uniforms and the men wore three piece suits that were perfectly pressed. The uniforms made it obvious to spot those that were dressed in non-western clothes, like the women wearing kimonos.

There wasn't much of a chance to observe because everyone was asked to leave the area. Then large screens were set up to keep bystanders from seeing what was going on. Once they were safely out of prying eyes the Spirits used their abilities or powers to have the work done in an hour. The screens would be staying up for three days after though, even with the work done.

***Break***

It felt like only a second passed between the end of the fight and the time they made it back to Tony's house. Rhodes came back to the house to check on Tony and fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Pepper had decided to go home before she started work the next morning.

Tony had gone to take the armor off awhile ago, and Neo finally decided to go down and see what was taking so long. This was when Neo found Tony and Rhodes trying to pry off one of the arms to the suit with a crowbar.

Neo quickly walked over and took the crowbar out of the military man's hand, "Oh yes, that's very American; "this looks like a problem, let me find a big stick". Do you want to take Tony's eye out with a piece of metal, or did that thought not occur to you as a possible hazard?"

"Hey, I'm not the one who said we should use the crowbar," Rhodes defended and then pointed at Tony, "It was all the genius' idea."

"Yes, and I would appreciate it if you gave it back to the man trying to get me out of this suit," Tony seemed to pout as he tried to tug off the offending piece of armor.

Neo shook his head and sat the metal tool the farthest from Tony as possible.

"It's late Colonel. Why don't you go upstairs and get some sleep? I can get Tony out of the suit."

"You know what? I think that's a good idea," the colonel looks at his friend, "You know I care about you Tony, but I'm too tired and afraid that I might hurt you if I keep trying to help. See you in the morning, man."

"Hey, that's so uncool. If you leave, I am confiscating your "bro card", Rhodey!" It was a futile effort, since the other man had already left. Tony gave a huff when he realized his friend was gone. He looked to the only other person in the room, but he saw something strange in Neo's eyes. Tony had noticed the shadows before, the kind that give away the pains of a person's past to the people who can tell what they are. The younger man seemed to be struggling with something; like a person trying to decide if what they were about to say was worth the trouble of being known.

Tony realized he had been spot on when Neo spoke, "I need to tell you something. You really scared me out there Tony, but the worst thing about it is I know that I could have avoided that fear by telling you something I should have told you before. I feel like a coward now. I would have helped you if you needed it, but I was also worried about what would happen if other people found out my secret. Because it's not just my secret, it's my families' secret and a secret that has been kept by people around the world from everyone else. There is so much more to this world than you know, and I really don't know where to start or how to make you believe me."

Tony just shrugged, "Well usually things start at the beginning, because that's where they begin."

Rolling his eyes and laughing Neo continued, "Yeah, I guess they do," Neo went on to explain his history to Tony, starting at the supposed death of his parents and including his childhood with the Dursleys which is a part he usually left out. Neo did leave out the fact that he had a different name before. He kept talking, giving descriptions of his adventures one after the other, and he only paused for breathes. Neo let Tony know that his parents were alive and they had decided not to live together, but he neglected to tell Tony who they were. Then he went silent as he finished his story four hours later. In fact everything was silent and Tony was deathly still.

"Prove it," the genius suddenly said. Neo looked at him in confusion. "It all sounds too fantastic. I mean if you turned that story into a book series, you would sell copies around the world; but it would be sold in the fiction section because it's really hard to believe. Don't get me wrong I trust you, but I'm having a hard time with this. If you tell me that a secret group of people figured out how to harness ambient energy with some kind of device, that reads brainwaves and then processes those thoughts into commands, to change the environment; I might believe you more than just saying you can do magic."

Neo raised an eyebrow, then after a second of thinking he reached over to grab Tony's armored arm, and with his bare hands he tore the damaged metal apart. The now free man didn't look impressed however.

"I've seen that before. I mean it might have been done by people who looked a lot stronger than you…"

"Way to hurt a guy," Neo interrupted.

"…but science has been trying to make a super-human serum for ages, and we succeeded once before the scientist who discovered it was killed. You might have been unknowingly exposed to it."

Neo was puzzled, because Tony's arguments were actually sound. How did someone actually prove that magic was real and couldn't be explained by science? Neo decided to try something.

"Scientific theory can explain time travel and alternate dimensions, so taking you to meet Death is out; and like you said a wand could be considered a device that channels thoughts into reality by harnessing energy in different ways. But there are some things that cannot be explained by science. You would say that a man could not turn into a dog, right?"

"Of course," Tony agreed, but he had a feeling Neo was about to prove him wrong.

"Jarvis, I know Padfoot, so you have footage of him turning into a human right?" Neo asked the artificial butler.

A clip popped up on one of the nearest screens showing Sirius changing back into a human so he could grab a late night snack.

Acting like the stubborn man he was Tony chose to question what he saw, "Did you use C.G.I. on that, Jarvis?"

"No sir, the video is completely original. I also have another clip of the same man coming out of Mr. Lupin's room, before hearing you coming up the stairs and changing into a dog. Would you like to see it?"

"I knew there was something weird about that dog," Tony admitted.

Neo chuckled, "Actually, I think he's more natural as a dog. So do you believe me now?"

"If you give me a minute I could probably come up with a reason for it, but I'm too tired to figure out how to explain it being an illusion that you can touch. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

"That's so generous of you," Neo smirk, "but just to make sure you believe me. How's this?" Neo knew that science can't explain the creation of something from nothing, so he raised his hand and conjured up a grapefruit sized red rubber ball that he bounced on the floor and then tossed to Tony who caught it out of reflex.

Tony almost dropped it in surprise as the weight of the solid mass in his hands registered in his brain. He still squeezed it; just to make sure it wasn't a slight of hand trick, and the ball could be squished into a smaller size. It gave a little but was mostly solid and could not have been easily concealed.

Tony nodded, "That works. How does no one know about this?"

"People do know. I'm assuming you mean people who don't have magic, right?" A nod from Tony made him continue, "I'm sure that the only reason the Wizarding World has been successful in staying secret is because people in the mundane government are "in the know", actually I wouldn't be surprised if governments around the world where helping keep wizards and witches a secret."

"So why didn't you tell me sooner? I guess it can't be a big secret if so many people know."

"There are laws forbidding any witch or wizard from revealing magic to a non-magical person. The Wizarding World calls them "muggles", but I don't like the sound of it so much anymore. In the War, the people I fought against made it sound so terrible; I swore I would never say it again. I know that we have these laws, so I don't know why the Aurors haven't shown up yet. Just don't tell anybody else, unless it's absolutely necessary, alright?"

"Yeah, I just think that it's kind of strange that people are keeping it so secret. I don't think that it would be such a big deal to at least take responsibility for what they did, instead of covering it up. Come on, can you honestly tell me that you haven't thought about telling everyone that you're a hero and saved the world from a psycho Magician? You're acting way too humble about this."

"Honestly? No," Neo looked at Tony with a steely gaze, "Only an insecure, self-serving, idiot would have to tell people he's a hero. It's dangerous enough having to fight all of the bad guys. Why would I put the people I love in danger from the rest of the world by revealing my secret to terrorists and the like? Public means public, everyone will know who and what I am. What if the non-magical "bad guys" suddenly decide to target me for one reason or another? When they find out I will never surrender; what's going to stop them from targeting my family and friends? And if they succeed in killing me or worse, who's going to protect the people I love from them? Who's going to protect Sirius and Remus?" Neo looked away, and when he looked at Tony again there was even more fire in them, "Who's going to protect you? Aren't you supposed to be a genius? I shouldn't have to tell you this. I keep my powers and identity a secret for many reasons, not just to protect myself. And I'll tell that to anyone else who asks me that question. I won't be responsible for setting a precedent that will cause people like me and you, who need to keep our identity a secret, to be forced into revealing their identity because I know how dangerous it is."

"What do you mean? Why should the good guys have to hide? If we knew the people behind the mask, it would make them responsible for what they do. If someone with the power to save people does the job but leaves others to clean up the mess, that's negligence. I've seen the news Britain was affected by the War, but I don't see the Wizards out their fixing what happened."

"The War was concentrated in the Wizarding World for a reason. The people I fought with did their best to make sure that the mundane people were not hurt. We gave up our last sanctuary as host to the final and worst battle of the war, so that non-magical people would be safe. With the things that happened there, the Wizarding Worlds last beacon of hope with never be the same. There was too much destruction and black magic for Hogwarts to ever be the same again, but people are still trying to do what they can. And even more are working to repair the damage done in the Mundane World. If you also cared to realize, you would have noticed that the reconstruction is coming along significantly faster than it usually would, almost like magic."

"Yeah, and now that I know, I can also see that every one of those witches and wizards is happy to let people keep thinking that it was a bunch of terrorists that did it. At least if people knew the truth, they wouldn't be so scared of someone that isn't coming back."

"Voldemort was a terrorist, and who said the threat was gone? There were too many people willing to fight for his cause, for me to delude myself into naively thinking that there won't be some other Dark Wizard or Witch who will come along and decide to pick a fight. The Magical World did everything it could, for as long as possible, to keep the mundane mortals safe. No amount of magic could protect everyone, all of the time. It would be even worse if the rest of the world did know about magical people and thought that they could "take responsibility" like you're saying, because for some that translates into "solve our problems". Do you really think it would be better if people knew that there were others who could fix something with a single word, save lives with a simple concoction, or kill with one spell? You've heard the stories about what people did when they believed in magic. They used to burn poor widowed women at the stake for a man's infidelity; because he decided to blame his transgression on magic instead of admitting that he was the one responsible to the rest of his village. The people who were executed in the Middle Ages or during the Witch Trials weren't even magical. Every magical child knows a spell to protect them from flames. But the fear of magic, of a power that only a select few were chosen to wield, was stirred up by those people who were jealous that they didn't have such a gift. But you say you want people to take responsibility? It's not about responsibility to people in power it's about diverting the blame onto someone else, even when it's no one's fault. What do you think will happen if no one is able to stop an attack or save people from a major disaster? What if the public wants to hold magical people responsible because they weren't there? If that happens there will be groups and factions begging for blood. This whole World will be turned into a powder keg and the match that sets it off will be men and women with political power in the world who are looking for an excuse to get rid of someone that opposes them, while making themselves look good. It will cause a global war and no one will be safe from the death and destruction. If you want to be responsible use your genius to make the world a better place, but hang up your pride before you destroy more lives than you could ever save."

"At least I would try to save them!" Tony stood up and exclaimed his words in Neo's face.

"So would I! Don't think for a second that I would willingly leave anyone in danger if I could save them. What I'm telling you is to think ahead. What has the public ever done for you, that makes you even consider trusting them? You constantly prove that revealing your secrets and what makes you different to the public is dangerous. People continue to misjudge you. I heard what the people around you say about you, and I know you hear them to. They are supposed to know you and they couldn't be more wrong about the man you are."

"I was that man once, and what they say is true. You know that. It's the reason I'm trying to make things better," Tony argued.

"They called you a selfish coward, but I know the truth. I know that a selfish person wouldn't have tried to rescue the prisoner being held captive with him. I know that a coward wouldn't have made an unorthodox suit of armor, that he built in captivity, to escape; and he certainly wouldn't have used said suit to become a hero who saved lives by shutting down a terrorist organization and fighting a powerful enemy to save his friends. You deserve credit for that Tony, but do you think everyone is going to see it that way? How many people in the military, do you think, are hoping to get their hands on the "robots" that just tore-up the Stark Enterprises factory? When someone draws the conclusion that you obviously made it, people will start demanding it. They are probably going to fight you for the schematics to your suit because it's a weapon that they don't have and is more powerful than the ones they do. Like children being told that they can't have the new toy because the store that makes it is going out of business, they will demand it unreasonably and think that they can brow beat you into giving it to them anyway. That suit is a part of you, you decided to start this, and I know that you won't stop now. No one in the government is going to believe you if you tell them they can't have it, because they can't control you. It will get dangerous Tony, and you might think that you can handle that kind of pressure, but can you live with yourself when someone threatens Pepper, Happy, or Rhodes? People need to be responsible, but is it worth the terrible things it will cause later? I'm not telling you what to do; I'm just hoping that you'll consider what I'm saying. No one can make your decisions but you, so what you do about it is your call," Neo paused, "I just want you to be safe," He whispered.

It took a few minutes for Tony to respond, "You're the only person I can remember ever saying that to me, and I've got to say I'm a little upset that this is the first time I'm hearing it."

"I know that I'm stating the obvious, I just want you to make sure you think through things first…" Neo started but Tony interrupted him.

"That's not what I was talking about. I just realized that for the first time since my parents died, someone said they actually wanted me to be safe. That's not to say I don't realize people feel that way, it has been implied, but I haven't actually heard them say it." Tony gulped down a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat, "Never mind. So, what brought you down here?"

"Oh right! I need to tell you that we're leaving tomorrow, my family and I. Remember I was planning on going home with my Uncle and Cousins when they leave. I should have said it earlier but it kept slipping my mind whenever you were around."

Tony smirked, "I know, I can be distracting."

"Terribly," Neo agreed in good humor, "But, I have to go to Asgard to save another planet or two, you know, just the usual stuff; it's all in a day's work for us, right?"

"Right, so when are you leaving?"

"In a few hours, I'll spend a day back in New York, and then I'm off to another planet."

"This isn't goodbye, you'll be back," Tony said with confidence, "You already admitted I was distracting, but I also know I'm irresistibly attractive, devastatingly charming and…already completely in love with you."

"Wha…" Neo started to question if he heard the other man correctly, when suddenly Tony had leaned forward and kissed him.

Neo's eyes had become impossibly wise. Tony had pressed his lips to Neo's in a chaste kiss but the passion in that one kiss was mind boggling, and as he felt the warmth radiating from Tony's body, Neo slowly let his eyes close and kissed back. Both of their hearts skipped a beat and an electric spark went through them, as something warm and vibrant settled into their hearts. The complete feeling that Neo experienced in that one kiss caused a tear of joy to fall down his cheek. Neo could feel it in his heart and his very soul, Tony was his soul mate.

They were both out of breath when they separated, and they had matching joyful smiles. In that moment, Tony and Neo silently thought that the other was the most gorgeous thing they had seen in their lives.

The second that Neo got his breath back he spoke, "That was a little unexpected, I guess we'll just have to add spontaneous to the list. Where did that come from?"

Tony let out a breathy chuckle, "I really don't know. I only met you two weeks ago, but I feel like I loved you even before that. I had started having dreams about your amazing eyes and voice before I met you, and then you suddenly show up out of the blue. I don't really believe in fate, but the day I came close to believing, was the day I met you."

In the silence that came after that, it was easy to hear Luke yell out his brother's name.

"I told them to call when they were ready to go. It looks like it's time," Neo closed his eyes and leaned down to rest his head on Tony's shoulder, "And now I don't feel like leaving."

"I'm sure I could convince you to stay." Tony said with a sly grin.

Neo raised his head and took a step back, "And I'm sure you could, but I can't."

"Then you just have to come back soon, because you know how much I hate waiting. After all, I still have question, and you still have a lot of explaining to do."

"Right," the young god agreed with a laugh, "but now it looks like you're stuck with me when I do come back, so how about one more for the road."

Neo leaned down for one last kiss and it was not as chaste as the first, but it was full of love.

***Break***

The next day, after saying goodbye to his new friends and boyfriend, Tony went to a press conference much like the one he was going to when he first met Neo. Completely out of character, Tony actually thought twice when he got the sudden urge to tell the truth. As the idea popped into his head he instantly remembered the small argument he had with Neo the night before. Tony knew that the other man was right, if he tried to become a hero after telling people the truth it would do more harm than good, so Tony announced that thanks to his genius and a bodyguard dressed in a combat suit (affectionately named Iron Man by the press) the attack on Stark Enterprises was stopped. He also announced that because of the damage done to the factory, even though it was being rebuilt (technically it was already rebuild, thanks to the Spirits that served Neo), he would be building a new building in New York that ran completely on clean energy. The estimated construction date was still two years away at the most and when asked why he chose New York Tony smiled and said, "Someone suggested it."

That night Tony was coming home and was surprised when he met the apparent Director of SHIELD, Nick Fury. The man may have left quickly but Tony had a feeling that that was not the last time he would see him.

Nick Fury did not make house calls on a regular basis, but Tony Stark had actually surprised him today. Fury had been ready for Stark to pull something stupid to reveal the truth, but instead Stark had stuck with the cover story. The Director decided to pay the genius a visit to see if there was something else to Stark. It was confusing when he met the man and Tony Stark acted exactly the way he had thought he would. Tony Stark hadn't had a change in character; so what had made him decide to cooperate for once?

***Break***

The group made it back to the outskirts of Camp Half-Blood in the blink of an eye. Since Thor's coronation was scheduled for early the next day, the group would be staying there in Neo's tent for the night. Everyone except for Luke, Percy, Remus and Sirius who would be staying at camp (due to the minor fact that only gods are allowed in Asgard unless it's a special circumstance) took the rest of the day to prepare.

Loki had been teaching Neo about Asgard, and the young god was ready for the trip. After he was ready to go, Neo decided to see Chiron for a talk; he found the centaur in the Arena and they talked as Neo trained. They caught up on what had happened, and Chiron was impressed with Tony Stark's machine. By the time Neo left it was dinner.

Loki, Jormungandr, Fenrir, Sirius, Remus, Hermes and Luke were gathered around the kitchen table when he walked in, and as he shared good food with his family Neo felt excited about the next day. Loki had made plans to leave early and arrive as the final preparations for the coronation and after party were being made. They would slip in unnoticed in the confusion.

Even with his excitement, Neo was able to go to sleep easily. Fenrir had curled-up into Neo's side and was quietly snoring while Jormungandr lay on his other side. None of the sleeping gods knew the excitement that would come in the next few days.

_Author Note: Thank you for reading, and please review. I like to hear from my readers, and I have a question for my reviewers:_

_In Thor (the movie) Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye was only shown for a few seconds. Would you like to see an interaction between Neo and Clint?_

_P.S. As much as I love the Iron Man movie, __I was upset that Tony revealed his identity as Iron Man because that did not happen in the comics until much later. Tony actually had to reveal his identity to save a child and that was the best way. Told you this chapter was important. What do you think?_


	3. Chapter 2

_Author Note: Yes! I'm finally done with this chapter. This chapter was strange to write for me, and that's probably why it took so long. There is something I want to mention now; due to the story plot, Neo looks like a woman in this chapter and so that everyone is aware that Neo is a woman I start using the terms she and her after the transformation, so I'm giving you a warning incase you get confused. That's pretty much it for now. I actually had to stop this chapter sooner than I wanted, so the next chapter will be a continuation. I hope you enjoy, and remember I love feedback from my readers._

_This is rated M for violence but it's not graphic in this chapter, so just wait the next chapter is loaded with violent fighting._

"Blah." = normal speech

'Blah.' = thoughts

"_Blah_." = beast speech

"_Blah._" = Death's mental voice

***This*** = scene change

The Law of Three

Chapter 2

As Neo walked out of his tent, he was greeted by the calm woods around Camp Half-Blood. He could almost taste the strawberries in the fields, as he caught their sent in the breeze. Everything was beautiful that morning as he basked in the peaceful serenity, but the calm atmosphere was at odds with his mood. Today was the day he would be heading to Asgard. He was excited about his next adventure; which was like the ones he had been on before, except he had never travel to another planet. In fact, Neo was so excited that small bursts of magical energy were slipping past his control in the form of electric sparks shooting from his body.

Elric observed his master from the entrance of the tent. The part of him that still remembered being human admired Neo's love of life, something that had waned in Elric over time. Since a spirit does not need food, sleep or comfort it is no wonder they can become apathetic towards the living, but even after millennia of being a spirit Elric was still capable of feeling and he was glad for it. Whether it was because a spirit fighting to protect the innocent needs to feel for his charges or because of his own stubborn heart that fueled his commitment to be a Guardian, Elric was proud of the fact he could still feel happy for Neo and loyalty towards his master. But there was a downside to retaining his human emotions, because he felt the emotions that came through the bond with his master more acutely than any other spirit would have. Feelings of excitement, anticipation, and anxiety were stirring around in his chest.

"Perhaps some chamomile and lavender tea before you go, my lord?" Elric asked finally stepping out of the tent with a tray in his hands.

Neo spun around with a look of surprise, "Oh Elric, it's you…Did you say tea? No, but thank you for asking."

"Right, just one for me then," the spirit said quietly as he turned and walking back to the kitchen.

It wasn't long before Loki and his two sons came out of the tent. The other three gods noticed how blissful the morning seemed, and when Fenrir's nose caught the smell of the strawberries his stomach growled loud enough for the others to hear. Reminded of his hunger the wolf god gave a small whine. The four gods had decided to skip breakfast to make sure their first meal of the day didn't make a re-appearance from traveling between worlds.

Loki placed a comforting hand on Fenrir's shoulder and said, "Do not sound so pitiful, my son. No doubt the servants of Asgard are in the middle of preparing the Coronation Feast, and you should be able to sneak a morsel before the Heir of Asgard is crowned. If I did not know better I would say you are the Son of Volstagg the Voluminous," Loki let his handsome features contort into a smirk.

"Hey! That is so not cool, I've met him before. It's like he just keeps eating," Fenrir's face had taken on a look of utter revulsion, "If I had an appetite like his I would be larger than all of Asgard."

"Then not only Odin would have to fear you, but the entire realm of the gods would be afraid of you swallowing them whole," Jormungandr joked.

"Where did that prophesy even come from? It's not like I'm actually going to eat Odin; he would probably taste like boot leather on a stick, because we all know that he's had one lodged so far up his butt these last centuries that it has become surgically implanted." Everyone laughed and as the snickers quieted down Loki felt that they should hasten their departure.

Loki turned to Neo to inform him of the hurry, "We are behind schedule, and the others should have been here by now. If they take much longer we will have to leave without saying farewell."

Of course, that is when his godfathers decides to show up, with Remus dragging Sirius behind him. The spectacle was added to when Luke helped a stumbling and half-asleep Percy Jackson walk through the trees to meet everyone. It was sad that Chiron couldn't be their but the centaur had already wished them a safe journey the previous night, knowing that his morning duties would keep him from seeing the Son of Hermes off.

The goodbyes were rushed, but Sirius was able to wake up enough to tell his godson to keep a keen eye out for the "Asgardian Talent" (translation: any moderately good-looking woman with a pulse). When Sirius noticed the death glare Remus was giving him, he quickly tried to retract his statement but it was too late. Sirius had to chase after the wolf shape-shifter as he walked away, which was faster than usual due to Remus no longer having a limp since Death made the two wizards young again.

The last thing that Neo heard Sirius say was, "…I swear I didn't mean it like that. I was just saying that Neo's a young man and he needs to realize that he will have…urges. I'm not saying he should recklessly pursue women, but the poor lad should at least be allowed a girlfriend. Wait, why are you walking faster? Remus please, just slow down and talk to me!"

Neo knew what Remus was concerned about but Sirius just didn't realize, that like any parent raising an independent young adult, Remus was worried that Neo was growing up too fast and wouldn't have time for his family any longer. The shape-shifter, who acted like a mother hen, seemed to be going through the stages of Empty Nest Syndrome already.

The youngest god gave his half-brother a put upon look, "Could you keep an eye on them for me? Remus' mood won't change until I comeback, but hopefully you can stop him from killing Sirius while I'm gone."

"Sure but I think that's easier said than done, just make sure you comeback in one piece so no one dies from a heart attack," Luke gave Neo a hug before the god turned to the Son of Poseidon.

"You know what? You're the one I'm going to worry about the most. You seem to have as much luck as I do, when it comes to getting into trouble."

"Hey, I totally resent that. I don't "get into trouble" it goes out of its way to find me," Percy chuckled uneasily as he remembered Mrs. Dodds trying to rip out his heart, "But look, uh…just be careful, okay?"

Neo held out his hand, "Always," he said as they clasped hands and pulled each other in for a brief hug. As he pulled away Neo reached into his pocket to pull out a small box. "Here, I made this for you. I realized I won't be around to watch your back, so I thought you could use it."

Percy opened the box and looked inside, on a sturdy-looking silver chain was a silver ring. It didn't have any markings and looked like any ordinary silver band, so Percy gave Neo a questioning look, "What is it?"

"It's a Ring of Invisibility, like Annabeth's hat it can turn the wearer invisible. This link here," Neo said pointing to the piece of metal attaching the ring to the chain, "will break when you want to remove the ring from the chain and it will repair itself when you want to put it back. You're the only one who can remove the chain and ring so you don't have to worry about them being stolen. But you still have to be careful, because it only makes you invisible. It doesn't stop someone, or something, from hearing or smelling you and you're still solid, so you have to make sure you don't bump into anything. I used to have a cloak that did the same thing and it got me out of a lot of trouble."

"You made this?"

Neo rubbed the ring on his hand absently, "It wasn't hard, and I already had an idea of how to make one." Well, that wasn't completely true. It took two hours of studying the invisibility property of the Death Ring, and was only thanks to his Mage Sight, large magic reserves, and link to Death (who was happy to help), that Neo was able to make it at all. But all considered, Neo felt better that he had something to give Percy to help the demigod while he was gone. Now that Neo thought about it, Tony could have probably used one too, but then again, the man was too flashy to hide from danger even when his life depended on it.

"Thanks," Percy said as he took the gift out of the box and draped the chain around his neck. "It's warm," he said in surprise.

"Yeah that's because of the magic in it, I spelled the chain to be unbreakable except for that on link and that one will only break when you want it to. But I added another charm; I made sure that you can't misplace it by accident, and that when you're in the water it won't slip off," Neo explained, "All of the power used for the spells makes it warm to the touch. And with that last charm it should be harder for you to lose it, but you are a teenager."

"Ha ha," Percy voiced sarcastically as he gave Neo an annoyed look, "Now get out of here, so I can start missing you already," he finished as he gave the god a good natured shove to his shoulder.

"I always knew you cared," Neo quipped before he turned toward Loki.

The Asgardian Prince let his magic enfold the three younger gods in his power as he pulled them into the old passages between worlds. And just like that, the four gods were gone. Luke guided a slightly solemn Son of Poseidon back to camp for breakfast. He may have been a little concerned for his half-brother, but Luke was pretty sure that, out of everyone who could have volunteered to save Asgard, Neo was probably the most likely to make it back.

***Break***

Traveling the old passages left the group feeling disoriented. The relevance of time was different, as the universe around them seemed to move at light speed but it felt like it took forever to get anywhere. A shift in course left them spiraling through the Universe, and the gods started to panic. They seemed to spin faster and faster through the Cosmos, but their journey was abruptly halted when they came crashing down on something soft.

Sitting up, Loki was the first one to realize where they were. The dimly lit room they were in seemed to be a bedroom, which had all of the usual furniture (bed, dresser, vanity and chair, dressing screen, etc.) that would have appeared normal in their mostly black coloring had it not been for the larger than normal size. The bed that they had landed on was so large in fact that all four of them fit on it comfortably without touching the sides.

"This is new," a voice commented from beside them. It was Hela, who had just walked out of what looked like an adjoining bathroom. Her large figure, which was twice as tall as Loki, was clothed in a dark green dressing gown. Her completely white gaze fell heavily on them, "I do not usually receive visitors in this part of my palace. What has brought you here so suddenly?"

"We were traveling the old paths to Asgard when I sensed a detection spell placed around the realm. I could sense that it was Odin's power. No doubt he is wary after the release of my sons, but it is strange that he only recently took such precautions. I have traveled to Asgard after Jormungandr was released and they had not been present. Our presence on Asgard was supposed to go unnoticed, so I was forced to steer us away or be found. It was reckless of me, we could have ended up anywhere in the Universe."

Hela walked behind the dressing screen and the soft movement of cloth could be heard as she spoke, "Odin may be a paranoid old-fool, but I am almost certain his wariness is due to the Coronation and not the freeing of my brothers. If you were to take the normal paths to Asgard you would easily slip past the All-Father's eye. So, it could only be Fate that caused you to end up here."

Hela came back into sight dressed in a beautiful gown, it was fit for a Queen and was black and emerald green with gold accents. She wore her long black tresses in an up-do that was pinned into place by gold hairpins. And the jewelry she wore was also gold with large emeralds inlaid into the metal.

"I know just the disguise for you to use. Of course, when I say you, I mean you, Loki, and the Son of Thor. It would be too easy for the All-Father to sense Fenrir and Jormungandr as soon as they entered his realm, but your magic has learned to disguise itself well from Odin. Neo is another option simply because his natural association to Death which Odin is not familiar with, and because he has already been using his magic to hide since he was a child. You two are the only ones among us in this room who could possibly sneak past Odin and Heimdall's ever watchful eyes.

Loki caught the subtle meaning of her words, and with the way she was dressed he had to ask, "Are you going to the Coronation?"

"Naturally, as the ruler of Helheim I was asked to bear witness to the Crowning of Odin's Heir, and it just so happens that a Queen is allowed to be accompanied by her hand-maidens," Hela's smile was ominous.

'This isn't going to be good,' Neo thought when he saw how Loki had gone slightly pale at his daughter's words.

A few minutes later Neo found out how right he was. Hela had convinced Loki that it would be easy for him and Neo to go as women, and unfortunately with their godly power they had little excuse not to.

However, Neo was confused, "If we use an illusion won't they notice that we are using magic?"

Hela was the one who answered, "Who said anything about using illusions? In ancient times the gods had no forms. As beings of conscious thought, gods simply existed without a tangible form. When they chose to interact with mortals, the gods took on visible appearances making it possible for mortals to perceive them. Some chose a masculine appearance and others chose a feminine appearance based on their nature and preference. You may not have started out your existence as a god, Neo, but you do have the powers of a god and the ability to change your form."

Jormungandr gave Neo a questioning look, "Haven't you noticed that Fenrir and I have different appearances from the first time you met us?"

"Yeah, but I just figured you guys were shape-shifters, or using some kind of godly form of the animagus spell," Neo admitted.

"Wow, who knew he was so slow," Fenrir teased.

Neo glared at Fenrir while retaliating, by sending a stinging hex that hit the wolf god on the tip of his ear. Fenrir yelped in pain and was quick to seek payback, but before he could Loki interrupted the small fight.

"Enough, there is no time for silly squabbles, we need to hurry before we are too late to stop the Frost Giants," Loki declared.

It took a while for Neo to understand the basics of changing form. When they were done Neo and Loki had transformed into women of godly beauty. It was probably due to Loki's sense of pride and vanity, but his female form was a gorgeous black haired and green eyed woman that put many Asgardians to shame. So it was no different for Neo's female form. Since he decided to shape his form in a similar way to Hela and Loki, Neo's female figure was tall, voluptuous, and had defined feminine strength (think gorgeous Amazon). Neo's normally dark hair had become a beautiful dark chocolate waterfall that cascaded wave over wave to mid-back with highlights the color of cinnamon, and the dark tresses seemed as soft as silk. Emerald eyes the same color as Death's had become more enchanting, due to the eyelids being more almond-shaped with long fanning lashes. Neo's skin was still slightly olive colored, and his face was youthful, making him look somewhere between 17 to 24 years old. All three "goddesses" standing together were a breathtaking sight. (At this point Loki and Neo will be referred to as she/her)

Then Hela gifted Loki and Neo with two gowns that had knee length skirts and were easy to move in if they needed to fight. There was a forest green dress with gold embroidery for Loki, and a deep red with gold embroidery for Neo. And when Neo put on her jacket to cover her exposed arms, the jacket changed into armor that was fit for a female warrior. Golden armor had appeared around Neo's torso like a corset, chainmail covered her exposed chest, light and strong metal gauntlets covered her hands and forearms, and Neo's boots were now high heeled with gold metal plates and shin guards. Her now matching red cape was in place and completed a look that was appropriate for a Queen's handmaiden/bodyguard. Loki donned a similar golden armor with green cape.

Neo was fidgeting, because Hela had made her dress just like any other woman. It was different wearing women's clothes, and Neo was having the strange thought to ask how she looked. It wasn't like she had a problem with the clothes, but Neo knew that she had never had good fashion sense.

"I thought the idea of a disguise was to be less conspicuous." Fenrir stated with a confused frown.

"Well that's true," Jormungandr agreed, "but if the disguise is distracting enough to draw attention were you want it then it will also work. Just think; Odin is wary of an attack correct? So it is better to take on the form of a woman, because the warriors of Asgard do not view them as a threat. A beautiful woman is seen as even less of a threat, since they appear so delicate. And when a man is too busy looking at your chest to see the weapon in your hand, he is easy prey."

Neo raised an eyebrow, "It sounds like you've done this before," she stated.

Jormungandr had a suspicious twinkle in his eyes as he gave a noncommittal shrug, "How could I? I've been stuck in the Midgard Seas, remember?"

"Come," Hela said, but she did not give the other two time to understand her meaning. She grabbed Loki and Neo before appearing in the entrance hall of Asgard's royal palace.

The sudden arrival was noticed by the guard who had reached for their weapons on instinct before they saw it was the Queen of Helheim. It was obvious when Hela's presence became known; guests and guards alike seemed to all take a step back. Neo didn't know wither to chuckle or sneer at their lack of tact. At that moment it was obvious why Hela held no love for Asgard or its people.

"Leave me," Hela dismissed Loki and Neo as if they were really her servants, "I will call if I have need of you," and then she walked away without giving them time to answer.

"What now?" Neo asked quietly.

"I must find Amora and see if she has made her move yet. You will stay her and keep your eyes open, but if you see her, stay far away," Loki ordered sternly before she wondered off into the crowd and was out of sight.

Neo looked around her. Biting her lip Neo muttered to herself, "But what am I supposed to do here?"

A voice speaking from behind Neo startled her, "Don't you look like a little lost lamb? Tell me fair maiden, what has put such a troubled expression on your lovely visage?"

Neo caught sight of the man behind her as she turned. He was dressed in decorative armor over his green ensemble. The man's golden hair was expertly coiffed, and he had a well groomed goatee. His charming smile almost reminded Neo of that fake, Lockhart, but he also seemed to be a gentleman in his manners as he gave Neo a polite bow.

"I am hardly fair and your flattery is unnecessary, but if you must know I am here acting as Queen's guard." Neo said a little icily, trying to communicate her wish for the man to leave by acting cold.

It looked like it would take more than a cold tone to get rid of the man, when he spoke again to Neo in his charming voice, "A Queen's guard, truly? I have not seen you in Asgard before. Is it possible that you serve another kingdom? Then surly a beauty such as you must come from the realm of the elves, Alfheim. I beg you tell me your name, my lady, for I Fandral have met many fair maidens but all pale in comparison to thy beauty."

"You are wrong on both accounts," Neo said while giving Fandral a frosty look.

"My lady?" he questioned.

Neo was two other warriors approaching and they arrived before she spoke, "You are wrong to assume that I care whom you find beautiful, and again you are wrong to assume I am from Alfheim."

The large man with an impressive red beard who had come to join them decided to interrupt, "Well of course you're not! You have a sturdier build than an elf, and I have not seen a light elf with such dark hair. That could only mean that you are from Vanaheim, am I right?"

The man's jovial voice had a booming tone but he was so much like the gentle giant Hagrid that Neo instantly liked him. The memory of her first wizard friend made Neo smile and when she spoke again her tone was friendly and her voice carried her happy feelings, "Wrong again, but I think I will allow you a third try."

This time the dark haired and somber looking man spoke, "Valkyrie," he said with a slight accent and grumbling voice.

Fandral snickered, "Hogan, do not be ridiculous, she is too sweet to be a Valkyrie. I am more inclined to agree with Volstagg."

"It seems that today is not your lucky day," Neo's smile turned into a smirk as she thought about their reactions to what she was about to say, "I am here as guard to lady Hela, Queen of Helheim."

Neo was right; the three warriors' reactions were priceless. Fandral almost swallowed his tongue in disbelief and Volstagg's bushy eyebrows had made a valiant effort to touch his hairline, even the stone-faced Hogan seemed a little surprised (even if his face didn't move) as he stared at the woman in front of him.

"I thought only the dead served her?" questioned a voice from behind Volstagg, who moved to reveal a black haired woman in red and silver warrior's garb. The new arrival was shorter that Neo, but didn't stop the woman from trying to intimidate the Heir of Thor.

Neo gave the woman a glare for her rudeness, "And yet I am not; that is the point you are trying to make. Does that concern you, the fact that I am not a ghost or likewise deceased?"

"No, what concerns me is the fact that you are trying to lie to my friends," the woman declared.

"If I am going to be accused of lying, l believe I have a right to know my accusers name," Neo countered.

The woman seemed to straighten even more in a show of superiority, "I am Sif, goddess of War, and friend of the Warriors Three," she said gesturing to the three men, "and we are friends to Thor Odinson. Who are you, besides someone who lies as easily as Loki?"

Neo's anger almost made her lash out at the snobbish woman, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Hela's voice came from high above Neo's shoulder, "You seem to have made new friends, Thyra. You should introduce us," Hela commanded.

Neo felt her hackles raise but complied to the request with politeness, "Queen Hela, please allow me the honor of introducing you to the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. Warriors, Lady Sif, I present to you her highness Queen Hela, Ruler of Helheim." Neo knew the customary old-time speech, but it still felt forced and she could not wait to get back to Earth so she could start talking like a modern person again.

"Pleasure," Hela greeted the four, "Thyra, try not to let your new friends keep you from your duties, but since I do not have need of you at present, you may speak to them for awhile longer." Then Hela was gone as fast as she had arrived.

Neo accepted Hela's appearance, for the save that it was, and apparently Hela had even thought of an alias. Thyra, Neo pondered and in her head thoughts of what it meant surfaced; Thyra means "like thunder", and was derived from Thor, which fit one of the ways of traditionally naming children. It was a big hint, but Neo also doubted that anyone from Asgard would understand the significance, since they all thought that Thor did not have a child at this moment.

"That proves you work for Hela," Sif suddenly admitted, "but the fact that she could touch you, without you being a goddess, means you are likely a well preserved corpse. So, perhaps your beauty is a mere illusion, little Liar?"

Sif's words would not have mattered any other day, because as much as Neo was called a liar before she was able to handle it; but when Sif insulted her looks, it set off a switch in Neo's mind and she felt exactly like any other girl, slightly self-conscious and completely offended.

Neo was again ready to strike Sif and as she swung her fist at the Asgardians face Fandral and Volstagg intervened. Fandral backed Sif away and saved her nose from being broken by the force Neo put behind her punch. With the first blow going harmlessly through the air Neo struck out horizontally with the other hand.

Volstagg tried to block Neo's fist with an open palm, and being almost as strong as Thor it would have been easy to stop a woman. Unfortunately the warrior misjudging the power of his opponent, but he was able to save his hand from injury by deflecting the force out of his palm and down. Volstagg's temporary shock, at the girl's strength, left him unable to stop Neo as she attacked again.

The last failed attack put Neo in a position where a spinning kick was the only thing that would reach Sif. Neo pivoted then spun and aimed her heal. Fandral and Sif moved farther back when they saw the graceful, and deceptively powerful, attack coming. Hogun moved and blocked the blow with his forearm guards, and he too was taken by surprise when the strong kick impacted with the metal on his arms and sent him stumbling back and falling to the ground.

Neo stopped when she realized she had hurt two unintentional targets and it seemed that Fandral was still blocking Sif from her. Neo glared heatedly at Sif, "Do not call me a liar again, or no one will be able to stand in my way."

"You are a fool to threaten me, little girl," Sif said with a sneer.

"I am not threatening you," Neo paused and offered a hand to Hogun. When he accepted Neo helped him up before she turned toward Sif again, "It was a simple promise."

"Do you have a quarrel with my friend, young one?" a new voice asked. It seemed that Neo was doomed to a day of people popping up out of nowhere; Neo was starting to think "Nowhere" existed as a parallel dimension that acted like a one way mirror, and allowed people to perfectly time when to sneak-up behind someone.

"Not until the second time she insulted me," Neo replied angrily.

"I did no such thing, Thor," Sif denied, "This girl is a liar and should be taken to the dungeons for attacking a member of Asgard."

Neo turned around to look at the man behind her, and sure enough, it was her father. Thor too recognized the person in front of him. Neo's female form looked slightly like Thor's own female form, with the fiery-red/blonde streaks in her hair and a face that had taken on features resembling Lilly Potter (or what a daughter of Lilly Potter might have looked like).

"I am Thyra, Lord Odinson, and I am no liar, I swear," Neo said, and hoped Thor would realize what she was calling herself, "I admit to raising my hand, but I did so to defend my honor. I realize it was a foolish action, but I am known for such foolishness due to my temper. I would also like to apologize for not hitting my target and instead hitting Volstagg and Hogun."

Neo turned and lowered her head gravely, "Please forgive me."

"That's not necessary," Volstagg said.

"No need to apologize," finished Hogun.

"Do you see how her silver tongue does not offer amends for attacking me, Thor?" Sif accused.

Neo twitched and almost advanced toward Sif, but Thor had stopped Neo with a firm grasp on her shoulder, "I did apologize, to the people who matter. If you expect me to make amends to you, you will die waiting."

Thor was tired of being confused, and was ready to get to the bottom of things, "What lies do you speak of, Sif?"

Sif faltered enough that Neo caught it before the Asgardian woman spoke, "She claims to be one of the Guards accompanying Hela," Sif spat out the goddess of Death's name like a curse, "since she is not dead then she is obviously lying, because none who exist in Helheim are among the living. When this insufferable girl refused to admit she was lying, I pointed out the truth. If she was not a liar, then she was obviously a corpse in disguise."

'Oh I'm in disguise alright, you two-faced wench,' Neo thought as she pulled away from Thor.

"Perhaps I can help in finding answers," Fandral said with a charming smile, "Out of all of us, I do have the most experience with the fairer sex. I'm willing to use that knowledge to get to the bottom of this."

"Why, do you prefer the bottom?" Neo asked. In the pause that followed, she too realized what had come out of her mouth, and smirked.

Volstagg's booming laugh was quickly joined by Thor's and even Hogun (acting as grim as usual) let out a cough as he found humor in what the young woman said.

The laughter of his friends did not offend Fandral. He laughed along with his friends before replying, "I am a gentleman, my lady, and it is my duty to accommodate all of the fair maidens of this realm. So, if that is what you prefer, I will oblige you."

The obvious innuendo did not escape the notice of the rest of the group, and while Neo blushed uncontrollably Thor had tightened his fist. As a Father it was Thor's right to protect his child's innocence even from his own friends and he would have confronted Fandral, blowing Neo's disguise, but he was stopped when the ceremonial bell rang and signaled everyone to take their positions.

After everyone left, Neo found Hela again and moved with her to the audience area. Hela stood in the back like she did at many of the gatherings that took place of Asgard. The sour look on her face, showed Neo what she thought about this arrangement. Neo was very impressed with this room, just like the rest of Agard, but the vast space made anyone standing in the back unable to see what was happening closer to the Throne. Neo's godly eyesight could just make out Odin sitting on his golden Throne.

The Coronation started out like any other official gathering; real and fake cheers, mostly fake smiles, some bowing and a bunch of official mumbo-jumbo that made Neo want to invest in ear plugs. Then the ceremony was interrupted when Odin felt a disturbance in his weapon's vault. It didn't take long for the Coronation to be dismissed and most of the guests left with disappointed looks on their faces.

"I will be leaving now," Hela announced when Loki had rejoined her and Neo, "I have things to take care of in my own kingdom, and I can't waste my time here. I feel I should warn you that some of the frost giants are close to Death's Door, but you still have time to change that. Good luck," she said before disappearing.

Neo turned to Loki, "What now?" he asked.

Loki pulled Neo into an almost abandoned dining hall before he responded, "We need to stop Thor from attacking Jotunheim, as Amora plans. If she succeeds in driving him into a blind rage we won't be able to stop a War between the Nine Realms."

"But, how are we…" Neo started to question, but he was interrupted by Thor who came storming in. (pun intended)

Neo and the real Loki watched from the other side of the room as the fake Loki/Amora tried to charm Thor into committing genoside. When Sif, Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun showed-up Thor tried to convince them to join him, but Loki knew how to stop them.

"I have to tell Odin, he is the only one who can stop Thor now. I'm counting on you to make sure they do not leave Asgard," Loki said before turned invisible and leaving.

Thor had just finished asking his friends to follow him into battle again when everyone heard a voice from the far corner, "You're joking, right?" Neo said as she stepped from the shadows.

The fake Loki looked at the new person in annoyance. Amora felt that her plan was working well, but she had made the mistake of thinking the room was completely clear.

"They attacked first," Thor reasoned.

"So you're going to start a War, just because someone ruined your party. Maybe Odin chose the wrong day to crown you as heir, because you still sound like a child," Neo said cruelly.

"Have care what you say, I do not take insult lightly!"

"It's only insulting if it's true," Neo said while giving her Father a stony look. "But if it takes you proving my point before you listen to reason, then by your leave continue. We will all see what comes of your actions."

Hogun was the first to understand what Neo meant, "You will come with us?"

"It would seem I have to, because this is a fool's errand and the only one who is making sense is being ignored," Neo said nodding to the fake Loki, even thought he knew this whole thing was Amora's fault, "Hopefully, with two people willing to explain the folly of this mission, someone will be able to stop this insanity."

"Then we have another to join us in battle," Thor stated before the lead the company out to the horses.

Neo stood next to Thor, who was out of earshot of the others, "You have the power to fly, right? Why don't you just fly to the Bifrost?" Neo asked.

The large Asgardian looked at his child before he spoke, "That is because I wish to start out every quest side-by-side with my friends. While I am happy that you would join me, even after your words in the hall, I must ask why you are here."

"It will be easier to explain it to you later," is all Neo said as the stable boy walked-up with the horses, "and safer," Neo said to herself when she saw the fake Loki mount the real Loki's horse. The only good thing about spending time around the fake god of Mischief was that Neo could now sense Amora's magic and tell it apart from Loki's.

"It seems you are without horse, Lady Thyra. May I offer my assistance, it would be my pleasure to ride into battle with a beautiful maiden such as you," Fandral offered in his usual charming way.

Neo was tempted to accept the offer, but she was distracted by a familiar whiney. Looking up Neo saw the white shape coming towards them. The Guards became alert as the form came closer but none of them were able to stop the creature from landing next to the riders. Dust was thrown into the air as gray wings stirred the air and hoof beats sounded on the ground.

The dust settled to reveal one of Neo's new friends, whom Neo greeted happily, "Hello Constance, now how did you get here?"

"_I flew, of course,_" the Pegasus brayed haughtily as if that explained everything.

Neo chuckled then raised herself into Constance's saddle, before she finally spoke to Fandral, "It appears I will not need your assistance after all."

Fandral looked over at his friends curiously and the only answer he got came from Hogun, "Valkyrie," the unexpressive man grumbled.

The horses and riders where soon traveling across the Bifrost to the Gate. They quickly arrived at the Gate where the Gatekeeper stood, and Neo tried hard to hide his own signature from the powerful being. The Asgardians dismounted and left their horses on the Bifrost, but Constance would not leave Neo's side.

"I know what you are here for Odinson, and I will not allow you to pass," Heimdall said after they walked through the archway of the Gate.

"Do you seek to stop me?" Thor asked with anger in his voice.

"No, because the All-Father will," Heimdall answered at the same time that Odin entered behind them.

Odin rebuked Thor for his childishness, and almost instantly Thor was stripped of his powers and banished to Midgard. Neo watched as her father was thrown back into the Bifrost and fear stabbed her heart, she had to look on as the now spelled weapon went flying through the portal after Thor. The new god didn't even think before she was reacting.

The "Daughter" of Thor jumped onto the back of the Pegasus beside her and rode after her Father. No one was able to stop her and even Odin was curious about the young woman who had followed Thor into exile.

In the chaos of the Rainbow Bridge transporting them to Midgard Neo followed the magic signature of the hammer. When Constance landed next to the battle hammer Neo realized that Thor was nowhere around. That was when Neo finally let her curiosity get the best of her. Wondering exactly what Odin had done, Neo looked at the enchantment on Mjolnir.

"Just great," Neo said in annoyance. Odin was trying to enchant the Hammer with a spell that had a major loophole, like the rest of his spells. The spell had to be altered before it became permanent, or it would cause major trouble in the future. The only problem was Neo had no idea what to do, "Well I guess it's a good thing I'm not above asking for help, Mom!"

A laugh came from beside Neo as Hecate stepped from the shadows. "No need to shout I was already here, sweetheart. It's not easy to miss the power of the Bifrost, especially since Asgard makes it a point to avoid contact with Earth."

"Sorry, I just figured you would still be in the Underworld," Neo admitted sheepishly.

"I do not have to stay there like Persephone. I am a ruler of the Underworld so I can come and go as I please. But enough with the technicalities, why did you try to call me?" Hecate asked.

"Odin has placed an enchantment on Mjolnir, but it's got a big loophole. It says that anyone worthy would have the power of Thor. Doesn't that mean if Thor ever felt that he was unworthy the hammer wouldn't work for him? Something as stupid as a stray thought could get him killed!" Neo exclaimed. It was too easy for someone to feel "unworthy" and it was dangerous to enchant a god's weapon with anything but a loyalty enchantment.

"You're right," Hecate frowned before she continued, "I'm afraid my power will be of little help, however; the powers of the gods of Asgard may be magic but it is unlike the magic of Earth. Æsir magic has evolved separately from Earth magic, meaning I have no power over their magic. Our Pantheons are different and the closet Asgard and Olympus could get to affecting each other's powers are to fight against each other, but still some spells would be nullified or ineffective. There is nothing I can do, but that doesn't mean I will not help; my magic may not work against this enchantment, but I am still knowledgeable in the ways of magic and as the Child of Thor you posses the ability to use Æsir magic, so I can teach you how to remove the spell."

Neo knew she would have to work all night to fix Odin's mess, again, and would not have time to look for her father. So, she set up a ward around the area to keep out everyone else mortal, immortal, or otherwise. Then Hecate and her Chosen Child got to work.

The first thing to do was remove the enchantment that Odin cast. It wasn't easy and took most of the night. Neo had to transfer the enchantment to another object, which Hecate said was "a simple trick that has worked for millennia" but it was time consuming. Choosing a hand sized stone off of the ground Neo used it to hold Odin's spell. Once the enchantment was removed from the battle hammer both women breathed a sigh. They were not finished yet because Neo thought that Odin was right about one thing; Thor needed to learn a little humility again, so Neo did a little enchanting of her own. Just like Marvápn, Mjolnir would now be loyal to its true Master, Thor, forever. But, so that Odin's lesson could be learned, Neo didn't leave the weapon for Thor to find she left the enchanted rock in the shape of Mjolnir.

Hecate gave Neo a hug after their little Mother-"Daughter" bonding time. "You did so well. I am very proud of you, and look at how beautiful you are," Hecate said as she held Neo at arm's length, "I was worried about all the girls that would want a piece of you, now I have to worry about all of the boys too!"

"About boy's…"Neo paused (it was a little strange finally having the chance to talk about who Neo liked with her parent), "I actually found a soulmate."

"Oh, I know that," Hecate said unfazed.

That was a surprise to Neo, "What? How did you find out?"

"I'm a god, we spend most of our time watching our children because we honestly have nothing better to do," the goddess admitted. "We could run this world in our sleep, which Apollo has actually done before, and as you know the scandals and gossip on Olympus is old news. If anything new happens in our monotonous lives now it involves our children."

Neo laughed, "You make being a god sound boring."

Hecate shrugged before she guided Neo down to the ground, and had Neo sit in front while Hecate sat down behind her. Neo felt a comb being pulled through her hair. Hecate started speaking while she brushed Neo's hair, "Well, it wouldn't be if Zeus had not restricted contact between the gods and their children. I mean the world is constantly changing and that can be interesting, but we are immortal so to us time can go by in the blink of an eye, and at a snail's pace, at the same time. There is little to improve around Olympus due to its "perfection", so nothing is new. The only joy some gods find in the mortal world are their relationships with mortals and watching their children grow, but Zeus had to take the joy out of that by denying the gods that experience firsthand. It is torture for some of the gods and goddesses, who can't comfort their children when they have nightmares, or see the bright smiles of their children directed at them."

"Then why am I an exception? I've talked to you and Dad before," Neo wondered aloud.

"There are some gods whose duties involve contact with their children, such as Dionysis and Hermes, and others who are sneaky about their meetings with their children. While the rest fear Zeus' wrath too much to even try. I am the only god who blatantly disregards that law without fear of repercussions, because when it comes to Zeus and I, HE is the one who fears ME and for good reason." Hecate said as she braided Neo's hair. When the brown locks were secured with a tied ribbon Hecate stood. "And remember you are not a demigod anymore, you are the first god of Eternia and one day ruler of your own Pantheon."

"You should rest, I have a feeling you will have an interesting day tomorrow. Goodnight," the goddess of Magic placed a kiss on Neo's forehead before she left.

After Hecate left, Neo decided to text her family to tell them she was fine; so first Neo texted Luke, who was in charge of telling everyone at Camp Half-Blood, then she texted Hermes and Tony.

"_Get some sleep, young one, there is no telling what an Asgardian can get up to. You will need your strength for tomorrow_," Constance said when Neo was finally done. Constance may not say it, but Neo knew that the winged-horse was actually worried about her well being. So she figured a few hours of sleep before sunrise wouldn't hurt, and when that thought crossed her mind Neo was asleep on a patch of dirt in the middle of New Mexico.

***Break***

As her Asgardian Father woke up in a Midgard hospital, Neo awoke with the Sun in her eyes and desert sand up her nose and covering her from head to toe (so it was debatable who was having the worse morning).

Neo cast some cleaning charms and freshening charms on her and her clothes before she did the same to Constance who was complaining about dirt in her feathers. With the hammer Mjolnir tucked safely into her locket, Neo changed the armor she wore back into black leather boots, and her black leather jacket with a red strip going up one sleeve across the shoulders and down the other arm. The deep red silk dress that Hela gave her was the same as before, with a sweeping neckline that exposed two inches of cleavage but covered the rest of her ample chest, and ended at her knee.

Finally ready to face a new day, Neo took down the ward she had constructed last night, and cast a tracking charm to find her Father. Once the young god was in the Pegasus' saddle, Constance took off in the direction Neo had pointed.

They were just in time to see two women and a man put Thor in the back of their van. Neo spoke when Constance landed on the ground next to the three mortals, "What are you doing with my Father?"

The three jumped and turned around when they heard a voice, to see a young woman riding a horse. Neo raised an eyebrow when she noticed that the dark brunette had pulled out a taser gun.

"Who are you?" the man asked. He reminded Neo of a college professor.

"I'm the bloody President," Neo looked at their shocked faces before she rolled her eyes, "I just told you who I am, that's my father, so obviously that makes me his daughter. But just to be polite my name is Neo. Now, I believe I asked my question first; what are you doing with my Father? And just for giggles, who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Jane Foster, this is Dr. Eric Selvig and my assistant Darcy Lewis. We wanted to ask your Father what he was doing in that wormhole we saw last night. Your Father wouldn't happen to be a diagnosed delusional patient by chance, would he? It's just he was saying some pretty weird things last night before Darcy tased him," Jane asked.

Neo's right eyebrow raised in question, "Not the last time I checked, but my Grandfather is a whole different bag of cats," Neo said to Jane, then looking at Darcy asked, "You tased him?"

"Yes, I did," the brunette admitted smugly.

Neo laughed "Oh, I'm never going to let him live this down."

"Well the guy totally went "screaming maniac" on us, I wasn't going to let that turn into "crazy killer", you know?" Darcy replied.

"Wait, seriously, you tased him because you thought he was acting crazy?" Neo said letting her bubbling laughter escape after she was done speaking.

Eric interrupted their banter, "Excuse me ladies, I think now would be a good time to leave," and that was when hospital security came out the front doors.

Seeing the orderlies, Jane nodded and looked at Neo, "Right. Look your Dad's not hurt, we checked, so why don't you come with us and we can talk back at the lab?"

Shrugging, Neo waved a finger in a circle as she said, "Sure, just point me in the right direction."

Jane showed her the way to go and gave her some directions before she got into the van and pulled out. Neo followed above them since Constance preferred traveling long distances in the air, and thanks to the mist no one on the ground realized there was a Pegasus flying over their heads.

Neo made it to the lab before Jane's van, which made the scientists wonder how the horse and rider had made it to their research building first.

The group decided to make the new comers comfortable until Thor woke up, so Darcy was told to grab a bucket full of water for Constance, while Eric and Neo helped to bring Thor into the building and lay him down in Jane's room.

"You certainly are stronger than you look, young lady. I couldn't have moved him by myself, and I have a feeling I wasn't much help anyway," Eric stated as he slumped against the wall breathing hard.

The elderly man was right, Neo had done most of the lifting by grabbing Thor under the arms and taking the weight of his upper body, but Eric had made a valiant effort in carrying Thor's legs (which had been difficult for the mortal to carry).

"Don't worry, you helped, I'm just stronger than I look," she replied calmly, "So what kind of research do you guys do here?"

Darcy spoke before Eric could reply, "All of the boring kind. I'm honestly convinced they were so bored they decided to conduct a side experiment on interns. Something like, "How long will it take before the intern dies of boredom", because misery loves company," the brunette said while playing on her cell phone.

"I told you before, Darcy, you can always drop the intern credit and go home," Jane told the whining woman.

"Jane , Darcy, not that again please," Eric pleaded.

The young god just shook her head with a smile on her face, the three people in front of her may look like they were arguing but they reminded her of Remus and Sirius, who would always be friends.

They all heard the loud groan come from Jane's room.

"Looks like Father's awake," Neo said before waltzing into the bedroom. The sight of Thor sitting in a bed that was almost two feet shorter than him in a paper hospital gown was priceless, and before Neo was fully conscious of what she was doing, she had pulled out her phone and taken a picture. "I'm as bad as Loki and Hermes," she told herself before putting the phone away and walking up to the bed.

Thor saw her approach and relaxed at the familiar face, "Why have you come here? Did Odin banish you as well, my child?"

"No I chose to tag along, to make sure you don't cause a major intergalactic incident. I say this with love and respect, but as is stands you've already been run over twice, and tased by a mortal half your size because she thought you were crazy. The best we can hope for now is that your social awkwardness doesn't get you killed," Neo smile sweetly.

"I do believe you have insulted me," Thor said sternly, "But I am aware that your words ring true, for you have been on Midgard longer and more recently than I."

"I love you, so I'm not going to lie to you, but I'm sorry if I seem harsh. It's just that things have changed and Midgard is not how you remember it," Neo told her Father.

"Verily, but tell me, why have you taken this form?"

"Just a disguise to get into Asgard without fuss, It was Loki's idea. Loki came to me and asked for help to stop an imposter who was disguised as him on Asgard. The same imposter who tried to kill Loki more than two weeks ago, and was planning to have you start a War with Jotunheim. You where about to do exactly what the imposter wanted before Odin banished you. So far Asgard has not made a move against Jotunheim for the thieves that were found, which shows both leniency and arrogance and is an expected move from Asgard," Neo quickly explained.

A look of concern showed on Thor's face as he asked, "Who is this imposter that would attack a Prince of Asgard, and how does my brother fare?"

"Loki is fine. The attack happened after he left for Jotunheim. The Frost Giants had set up an ambush but Loki was expecting it. What he wasn't expecting was to return to Asgard and find the double he left in his place dead. When Loki went to see why the guards had not raised the alarm he found an imposter speaking with Odin. Later he found out that Amora, the Enchantress, had taken his place. She wanted to have the Frost Giants ruin your Coronation so that you would attack. She hopes that a War with Jotunheim would end in their destruction and Asgard's victory, so when you take over as King of Asgard you will have already defeated your enemies. What is even stranger is the fact that her plans will cost the lives of many Asgardians but I do not know if she can be called a traitor, because Amora has deluded herself into believing that what she does is out of love for you."

Thor had gone silent after Neo's explanation, so he could think about what he had been told, "I know of who you speak, but I hold no affection for that woman. I do not know why she has concocted such fantasies," Thor told his child solemnly.

"Look, it will take time for you to wrap your head around what I said and our gracious hosts are waiting for us. Why don't you think about it while you change into something a little more suited for a human?" Neo looked in the closet for the clothes Jane had mentioned and pulled out some that she thought might fit her father. "Here try these on, I'll wait outside."

"What do you believe should be done about Amora's treachery?" Thor asked suddenly.

"Amora believes that everything she is doing, she does for the good of Asgard and you. That being said "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions" and she still understands that her actions are wrong. She is aware of the price for her misdeeds (the punishments that she will suffer if she is found out). Amora has already chosen her path, now she will live with the consequences…But you asked what I think should be done;" she took in a deep breath and let it out in a huff, "Amora is ready to start a War that would take the lives of many innocents, and end in the annihilation of one or more worlds. So I say; let the gods of Asgard punish her, because I would leave her to the mercy of Death," were Neo's final words before she turned and left the room.

***Break***

After Thor said he was hungry (well his exact words were something like "I need sustenance", but it translated easily enough). They found themselves at Rosa's Diner. The scientists had chosen a four seat table so Neo was forced to pull up a chair at the corner between Thor and Darcy. It was a blessing that the food was good and Neo felt less twitchy with a full stomach, of course that meant she had already ordered four full breakfasts and was on her sixth cup of tea. Neo hadn't really been paying attention to the conversation but she saw Thor raise something in his hand and send it hurling down to the ground. Her Seeker reflexes kicked in and Neo was able to save the poor mug from its untimely demise.

"Remember what I said about the times changing? People stopped smashing the earthenware in this country a long time ago; it's more polite to speak your compliments to the chief and ask for seconds," Neo informed the Prince.

"I meant no disrespect. Servant!" Thor yelled across the dining area, "More food for my friends and I."

Neo face palmed as she mumbled into her hand, "And we don't call the working class "servants", she's the waitress, but that's okay because you'll get it eventually. If you don't one of the women are going to slap you."

Blocking out the rest of the conversation, Neo focused on wolfing down her food and trying to get the waitress' attention so she could have her tea re-filled. Darcy had raised her phone up to take a picture of Neo (apparently Darcy thought it was a novelty for a girl to eat as much as Neo) but the new god had placed her finger over the lens before the picture was taken leaving Darcy with a black photo. That was when Thor decided to leave and Neo pulled out some money from her jacket pocket to cover all of the food that had been ordered for all five of them, leaving a large tip for the waitress.

Hours later Neo decided that choosing to follow Thor around town had proven to be a good idea, because the hilarious look on the pet shop attendant's face when the god asked for a horse was priceless. Neo was just about to say they could ride Constance, who would come if she was called, but Jane suddenly pulled up in her van saying something about knowing where Mjolnir was and Thor hopped in before Neo could say anything.

Jane and Thor had been carrying on a conversation for the whole ride uninterrupted by Neo, because she was distracted by the name of the town. Puente Antiguo translated to Ancient Bridge. Was that a coincidence or did that mean the Bifrost had appeared in New Mexico before and the place was like a default destination? Neo's thoughts then strayed to the reason Dr. Foster suddenly chose to help. The young god knew that the mortal woman was more upset about losing her research, than she was about the loss of Thor's precious weapon, but Neo didn't blame Jane; it's hard to watch someone take away your life's work.

The Sun had gone down when they finally pulled up to an overhang that gave a clear view of the containment area. A look of curiosity crossed Neo's face when she noticed Agent Coulson. The Agent made good time from Malibu to New Mexico, but why had Phil been called?

Whatever else she was thinking was forgotten when Neo noticed Thor heading down the slope to the fenced area.

As Neo started to move Jane questioned her, "Where are you going?"

"To make sure no one shoots my culturally inept father. You should head out of here, they're not going to let him go once they capture him," Neo replied before she took off after the Asgardian.

Instead of heading toward the fake hammer, Neo used the ring to turn herself invisible and went to find Coulson. She had just found the head agent when the alarms activated. Listening to Coulson Neo found out that they had no idea what was really going on, which was completely understandable.

As she was following Coulson around a corner another agent came running from the opposite direction. They crashed into each other, and the agent seemed to go from urgent hurry to alert paranoia as he pulled out a weapon and started waving it around.

"Who's there?" the agent said in a firm authoritative tone.

'Okay, this is not good,' Neo thought, 'What am I going to do? Man I feel so stupid. Maybe I can make him forget something he didn't see, wait…," A funny thought occurred to her when she remembered something she had seen on a movie. Molding her magic into a spell similar to the Imperius curse, mixed with legilimancy, Neo raised her hand and stared into the agents eyes.

"Peace, you turned into the hall and did not run into anything. Nothing happened here, and you will carry on with your duties," Neo said gently waving her hand through the air. She knew it was stupid to talk that way but it was similar to the movie so maybe it meant something.

"Nothing happened, I'm going to carry on with my duties," the agent said in a monotone voice with glazed eyes. He seemed to come out of the haze as he passed Neo and shook his head before he started running down the hall again.

"Yes! I'm a total Jedi," she exclaimed quietly before she took off after the head agent again.

When Neo caught up to him, she heard Phil order a sniper to target Thor. It was a surprise when she ran outside to find said sniper in a metal basket with a bow.

When the sniper said something about "slowing him down", Neo chose to interfere. She summoned the arrow, making it look like it disappeared.

"Something strange is going on here, Sir," Hawkeye said when his arrow suddenly vanished. He pulled another arrow and aimed only for that one to disappear too, "Correction, something very strange."

"What's going on, Barton?" Phil asked over the comms.

"I'm not really sure, and I don't want to say anything that might lead to me seeing a department shrink later," the archer replied.

There was a sigh before Phil spoke, "Have you still got eyes on the target?"

"Yes, sir," Clint said before he reached for another arrow, only to have his hand pass through air.

Neo chuckled from her position on the ground under the basket, "Not today my friend," she said as she held up the pack of arrows that should have been on the agents back. She dropped the arrows on the ground for the man to find and followed Thor over to the fake hammer.

As Thor reached for the fake Mjolnir his fingers had barely touched the handle sticking up from the rock when the power of the enchantment pulsed one last time before it broke, as the rock it was cast on dissolved into sand, making Thor think that Mjolnir had turned to dust.

All of the agents surrounding the area watched as Thor collapsed onto the ground, before they picked him up and lead him to an interrogation room.

Phil stopped next to the monitoring equipment and looked at the agent he had spoken to before, "What just happened?"

The agent shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea. The object spiked in radiation and then it just…disintegrated."

"That's not the strangest thing that's happened," Clint said while he wiped off mud from his quiver of arrows that he found when he got out of the lift.

"What are you talking about, Barton?" Phil questioned.

Clint shook his head, "Like I said I don't really know what happened, sir. I had the target in my sights when my arrow just disappeared, and when I pulled another one it disappeared too. I went to pull another arrow and my quiver had vanished."

"Could it have been the target?" the older agent asked in confusion.

"No, the target was completely unaware that I was there, and preoccupied. I doubt it was him but if he tells you that he's a magician, I might be willing to believe him."

"I'll ask him later," Phil says with his normally dry sarcasm, "Go ahead and stow your weapon, Clint."

Clint walked off to his temporary room to clean his gear before he put it away. It didn't take long for him to notice the two arrows that sat on his bed when his eyes traveled around the room searching for uninvited guests per usual. Keeping an eye open Clint walked over to the arrows and picked them up, both were clean and dry. He felt like someone was having a laugh at his expense, and he was right, Neo caught the look on the agents face and smiled before she teleported to where SHIELD was keeping her father.

Neo stood under the one camera in the room before she deactivated the power of the ring. Then she cast an illusion on herself that would only let Thor see her before she shorted out the camera and other equipment in the room with her electrokinesis.

"So, what happened?" she asked.

"I tried to reclaim the hammer, but I failed," Thor said quietly, and it was the quietest Neo had ever heard him speak.

Neo hated to see the mighty Asgardian so defeated, but she didn't know what had happened. One minute Thor was going to take the hammer and the next it was gone. Neo had felt the enchantment break, and she thought it was because the spell had put too much strain on the rock. Finally she asked a question she already knew the answer to hoping it would make Thor talk to her, "Were you able to find it before they captured you?"

"Yes, but as I reached for the hammer is turned to dust in my hand."

"That happens when people hold onto things too tightly. Maybe you were holding on to your pride as the mightiest Asgardian so tight that the hammer was turned to dust under the strain? Or maybe it found you unworthy?" Neo said.

"I grow weary of these vague questions. What do you mean I am unworthy?"

"Well, I was speaking metaphorically but I could always go for blunt. Mjolnir isn't gone, I took it so that it would be safe, but when you tried to reclaim it the hammer didn't head your call. When Odin sealed your godly power he must have interfered with how Mjolnir recognizes you as its master. Before Odin sent Mjolnir he cast an enchantment on it, I heard him, Odin said, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of…Thor." Your father sent you hear to teach you a lesson, did you honestly think it would be that easy? Even if I do question his methods, I can't blame Odin for deciding to do something after you almost started a War. If he hadn't stopped you, you would have been responsible for the deaths of countless innocents and caused genocide. You wouldn't want that," Neo wrapped her arms around Thor's neck, "because I know in my heart, that the person who gave birth to me would never want that."

Thor looked grieved as he hugged her back, "Odin spoke of such short comings before my banishment. Have I been so blind to my weaknesses?" Thor paused to think for a moment, "Odin does have his reasons for what he does, and if that is true, then you are perceptive in seeing his plans. There is truth in your words. I reacted in a way unbecoming of a ruler of Asgard. I vow to you, I will work hard to become worthy in the eyes of Odin, and I will strive even harder to become a parent worthy enough to have you for a child."

Neo choked and couldn't reply, so she curled up in Thor's lap and they sat in silence.

When Thor's stomach growled Neo couldn't stop from giggling, which surprised her for a moment (having been a man until then even when using the Poly-juice potion, Neo wasn't used to girly sounds coming from his mouth unless it was a prank by Fred or George). Then Neo's cheeks turned pink when her stomach growled loud enough she thought the agents outside might have heard. She left Thor sitting as she went to find something in the facility to eat.

There was a cafeteria type room that had been setup with quick and easy equipment that ran off of a generator. Military type rations of freeze-dried foods took up most of the supplies, but Neo found almost 50 pounds of refrigerated ground beef, seasonings, buns, and some fresh vegetables for a salad. Some more searching revealed individual bags of chips and other snacks. Then for desert she found packs of Jello in another large refrigerator.

After checking the room for cameras, which surprisingly hadn't been installed in that area, Neo dropped the illusion she had been using so she didn't scare anyone. It may seem backwards but she knew from experience that people react better when they find an intruder, then when they see an object floating in the air. She got to work on setting up the portable grill and started preparing seasoned patties and setting out condiments that had been stored away. Who knew secret agents kept the supplies to make burgers?

The meat sizzled and produced a delicious aroma that wasn't missed by Agent Clint Barton as he passed by the door. He opened the door and found a beautiful brunette in a leather jacket leaning over an electric grill. Her emerald eyes widened when he walked in, and Clint wondered what that was about.

"So burgers for dinner? That's new," he commented as he walked over to the containers that held the disposable plates and cutlery, "But you're not the usual cook."

Neo kept her eyes on the grill as she responded, "Actually, I was only making something for myself and a friend."

"All that food is for two people? Your friend must know how to put it away, but that's fine, I can make my own."

"Well uhm…how about you help me and we can both eat sooner," Neo suggested, "If you don't mind manning the grill I can make more patties for you too." Neo pinched off a piece of cooked meat and held it out to Clint, "Try it and see if you like it."

Neo was surprised when instead of taking it with his hand the man leaned forward and took it into his mouth, kissing Neo's fingertips at the same time.

"Mmhmm," Clint moaned in satisfaction. The blush that appeared on the mystery girl's face was cute, and Clint smiled as he took the spatula out of her hand. "Tastes great, you have yourself a deal, agent…"

Neo thought of what to say because SHEILD already knew about Neo Thorson, finally she said, "Thyra."

"Thyra?" Clint said slowly, letting the name roll off his tongue, "Is that a code name?"

Neo smirked, "That's classified, agent. Strictly need to know."

"Well you can call me Clint, and I'll just have to get the right clearance," he whispered into her ear.

The shiver that went down Neo's spine made her move over to her prep station, "You'll just have to do that, Clint," she said before she bit her lip and got to work.

It didn't take too long to get the meal plated as Neo cleaned up, and Clint's mouth was watering as he held two plates in his hands, "It smells amazing. I may have to corner you in the kitchen again."

"I actually like cooking, so it wouldn't be too hard, but I think next time is your turn," she said shyly. Neo gave a smile to Clint before she left the room.

"You can count on it," Clint said as he walked down the hall in the opposite direction of the girl. Hawkeye was able to find out many things about the other agent, one thing being that she was a very skilled actress, able to act naive and shy. If it hadn't been for the obvious way that her body moved like a trained fighter and her constant awareness Clint would have mistaken her for another intruder. He headed to Coulson's temporary office to offer him the other plate.

Phil looked at his agent when Hawkeye walked through his door, "Something I can do for you Barton?"

"Thought you could use some food, sir," Clint sat the plate for Phil down as he took a seat in front of Phil's desk. He grabbed his burger and finally took a bite. The mouthwatering flavor touched his tongue and sent off a tasty explosion in his mouth.

"This doesn't look like our usual fair. Did you go into town for this, Barton," Phil questioned.

"No, I actually walked in on another agent who offered to make some extra for me if I helped her cook."

Phil furrowed his brow in thought, he didn't remember having any female agent on this assignment, but Clint was cautious enough to have not let their food be poisoned so he decided to set his paperwork aside and eat. When he took his first bite the head agent's eyes widened at the fabulous taste. Phil would have to get the recipe for the seasoning.

While the head agent and archer where enjoying their meal, Thor was also appreciating Neo's cooking, but the Asgardian Prince was interrupted when his brother appeared in the room.

The new god could tell that it was the real Loki, but he did look different in his suit and coat. 'Oh wait,' Neo thought as she finally realized that Loki was a he again. It was at that moment Neo started to wonder why she was still a woman, but she just shrugged to herself.

"I see you have gotten yourself into trouble without me to help you, again." Loki teased his brother, "But things are even worse on Asgard. Amora tried to take the Casket of Winters and deliver it to the Jotuns, but she was stopped by Odin."

"How is that not good news, brother?" Thor asked.

"Because it gets worse. Odin has been putting off the Odin sleep for too long, and he has finally succumbed. With you banished and Odin recuperating, the task of ruling the kingdom would fall to me until you or Odin could take over…" Loki's words were drowned out when he was interrupted.

"And because Amora is pretending to be you, she is the temporary ruler of Asgard," Neo concluded.

Loki nodded, "She has Gungnir and power over all of Asgard with its mightiest weapons at her disposal."

Thor was starting to understand what Loki meant, "She has the power to start her war," he finished.

"So how do we stop her from doing that?" Neo asked, "I mean it's not like we have a reason for her to suddenly changer her plans, right? She wanted to destroy Jotunheim so Thor wouldn't have any enemies as King, so if he's banished is she just going to destroy the Frost Giants and rule Asgard?"

Loki seemed deep in thought before he said, "You're right…be ready for a fight. I know how to stop Amora."

Those where his final words before Loki disappeared from sight. The two gods left in the room looked at each other with matching expressions of curiosity.

"If I know my brother, Loki has come up with a plan, but has forgotten to enlighten the rest of us…again," Thor said.

"So, he does that pretty often?"

"Aye."

***Break***

Amora sat on the Throne of Asgard, a smirk graced the face of her disguise. Her plan was working so far, despite some minor hiccups. A War with Jotunheim would be easily influenced by her, as the one with the ruling power no one would question her commands or actions. Once Jotunheim became a threat she would have a reason to resend the order for Thor's banishment, and once the Frost Giants were destroyed the All-Father was the only thing standing in Thor's path to being crowned King. After all of the messy details had been worked out, Amora would dispose of her disguise and sweep in to comfort Thor and win his affection. She had no doubt that her charms would easily have Thor begging her to be his Queen.

Her train of thought was de-railed when the doors to the throne room opened. One of the royal guards rushed across the room to the foot of the stairs leading to the throne. With her focus on the guard Amora missed the Warrior's Three and Sif entering the room through the still open door.

When the guard kneeled at her feet, Amora felt a surge of superiority and she knew at that moment that she would enjoy being the Queen of Asgard.

"Lord Loki, I have an urgent message from Heimdall."

At those words everyone in the room was alert and listening.

"What news does he send?" Amora questioned.

"It seems that your brother has become enthralled by a mortal woman, and may be in danger of not wanting to return to Asgard. This is only one concern, however, as it seems that Thor has also been imprisoned by the Midgardians," the guard said.

Amora clinched her fist in anger, what Midgard filth would dare try to claim the heart of Thor? Amora was also uneasy, because as much as she wanted to, it was too soon to return Thor, "Thank you for delivering the message, now return to you duties."

As the guards left the four warriors followed through the door, all of them contemplating the distressing news. The guard had disappeared from sight before they could catch up to him, but as the group passed a dark alcove the guard leaned out to watch them leave. Slowly the face of the guard changed in a swirl of gold light and Loki stood watching his brother's friends.

***Break***

Neo had started to really like Agent Coulson in the short time she had known him, but his impeccable timing was starting to get on her nerves. She sat in a chair next to Thor and was snuggled in to his side, when Phil walked in. It was a good thing she had disillusioned herself after her run-in with the archer. Phil couldn't see her but she had been enjoying spending time with her family, so she was understandably a little miffed by his game of twenty questions. Thanking the stars that it only took him a few minutes to leave, Neo stood up and decided to take a look around. Banishing the conjured chair as she stood up Neo left her father with a quiet "be back in a minute," and was gone.

Bright screens illuminated the other room beyond the one-way mirrors. Agent Coulson was standing at the edge of the room while having a conversation on his phone, but e was also conveniently blocking the exit door. Neo stood out of the way and watched the other agents working. One screen caught her eye, it was a replay of the fake hammer, just before and slightly after it disintegrated, set on a loop.

'Wow, government agents really love their camera footage,' she thought sarcastically. Neo was finally able to leave the room when Phil hung up his phone and went back into the interrogation room.

The tables that contained all of Jane and Eric's research sat outside of the room. Neo wondered if she could get away with taking all of the research and destroying the copies SHIELD had made, after all the two scientists had been nice to her and Thor, but it would also be very mean to Phil..decisions, decisions.

Neo wasn't able to make up her mind before Eric Selvig showed up. She tried not to laugh, as Eric spoke with Coulson. Thor was not a doctor and Phil knew that, but he also wasn't a mercenary like Phil suspected so that left the agent questioning things. She finally had to cast a silencing spell on herself so she wouldn't bust-a-gut when Eric called Thor crazy. As she bent over consumed by silent peals of laughter, Phil had been convinced to let Thor go, or "Dr. Donald Blake" as Eric called him.

Thor was escorted outside and Eric breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the blonde man, but it didn't last long, "Where's the girl?"

'Uh-oh,' said girl thought. Slightly panicked, Neo moved back into the building.

Phil seemed slightly more alert, "What girl?"

Suddenly a feminine laugh came from the doorway behind Coulson, and everyone watched as Neo walked out beside an armed agent.

"…I woke up with a hang-over I will never forget, but the best part was when Sanchez found out about his new tattoo," the agent said as he wiggled his eyebrows at the girl that had bumped into him in the hall.

"No!" Neo exclaimed.

"Yup, it was the most beautiful butterfly tramp-stamp you've ever seen, and when our C.O. found out he had Sanchez doing drills in his underwear, so everyone could see it!" the agent started laughing but when he realized how silent it was he took a look around.

The look on Coulson's face had the agent quickly smothering his laughter, "Agent Hansen, why are you escorting an unauthorized guest around the base?"

"Excuse me, sir?" Hansen asked with a voice that had raised a few octaves.

Before Coulson had the chance Neo spoke in a shy voice, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't actually know if I was uninvited. I came with my father, and since you made him stay I couldn't just leave."

Coulson's face was still neutral but he stood slightly more ridged, "I'm sorry miss, are you saying you've been here this whole time?"

"Uh-huh, you guys were pretty busy when we got her, so I've tried to stay out of the way. I guess that you just didn't notice me." Neo blushed, "But I did get hungry. I found your cafeteria and no one was there, so I helped myself. But I will pay you back! I wasn't trying to steal it, I promise. I even made some for everyone else, after Clint showed up."

"Clint?" Phil questioned, not really sure if he wanted to know.

"Yeah, he came in and helped me cook. He must have been famished, I saw him walk away with two plates."

With that last statement Coulson's face appeared stony but his voice was the same when he spoke, "Well, I have to thank you for waiting so long, Ms. Blake. You and your father are free to go, now."

The shy look left Neo as she looked at Agent Hansen and smiled (unknowingly using magic to charm the agents that saw it), "Thank you for helping me. I didn't get you in trouble, did I?"

It was the agents turn to blush lightly, "Oh no need to thank me, ma'am, it's been a pleasure."

"Good night," she responded before she joined her father and Eric, who had started to walk away. She caught Thor taking the book off of one of the tables before they left the base.

Coulson turned and gave his agents a stern look after the three left, "I want the footage for the last two hours, search the cafeteria, and any agent who might have come into contact with that girl is to report to me. I want to know how we missed her. Where is Agent Barton?!" Phil barked out his question and walked back into the monitor room.

Half an hour later, Phil had nothing on the mystery girl, and he was even more frustrated because he hadn't gotten her name. He knew two things about her, the first was she was a talented cook, and the second came from Clint when he remembered that her name was Thyra; which may or may not have been a nickname.

That night the SHEILD Agents stationed outside of Puente Antiguo felt the wrath of Agent Phil Coulson. None of the agents got any sleep, and they were sure that this was just the beginning.

_Author Note: You rock! Thank you for reading, and don't forget to review. It helps me a lot when I get feedback from my readers._


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